THE 



SECRET HISTORY 



COURT AND CABINET 



ST. CLOUD. 



•\ 



V ■O >«^..5 



.iiJVj VS 



IN A SERIES Of letters 



:FR0M a resident in PARIS to a nobleman in LONDON, 
WRITTEN DURING THE MONTHS OF AUGUST, 

septbmb^r'^nd OCXpB«Ri 1805. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PRINTED rOR ANB SOLD BY JOHN WATTS, 

North-east Corner of Second in Dock Street. 

30LD ALSO BY ALL THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS^ 



1806. 




KAJJiiroToirj 



ADVERTISEMENT 



- THIS work, of which an immense number 
has been sold in England within a few weeks, 
is respectfully offered to the American public, as 
a most interesting production. By favor of a 
friend, the Publisher obtained a copy of it early, 
and immediately put it to press, under a full 
conviction that it would not only prove highly 
entertaining, biit eminently useful, to every de- 
scription of persons in the United States. The 
author, it appears, is a resident at Paris, and on 
an intimate footing at the Thuileries. He has 
had a full opportunity of weighing men and 
things at his leisure ; and his descriptions bear 
the most unequivocal marks of mental capacity. 
" Of all the portraits I have delineated," says 
the writer to his friend, " the originals not only 
exist, but are yet occupied in the present busy 
scenes of the continent, and figuring either at 
courts, in camps, or in cabinets." 



i 

ADVERTISEMENT. 

This work abounds in anecdotes, mostly ori- 
ginal, highly piquant, and well related. To the ; 
politician it offers an exquisite treat ; the historian | 
will find in it a record of events which he could 
not obtain from any other source ; and the de- i 
sultory reader cannot fail to derive from it the 
greatest amusement. j 

If it were just to withhold any part of this i 
work from the American reader, the Editor! 
might perhaps draw his pen through many para- 1 
graphs, which 'appear to him illiberal, and notj 
well founded ; but the good sense of the citizens j 
of the United States makes this unnecessary. ' 

The anxiety expressed by the friends of the 
Publisher for the immediate appearance of this 
volume, induced him to put it into the hands of 
several printers, who have completed it within 
fifteen days. This haste, it is hoped, will apo- 
logize for any trifling errors of the press which 
may be observed. 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. 

Buonaparte's political character contrasted with his military education 
and life — governed by courtiers and favourites. General Duroc — his 
character — the causes of his advancement — his military exploits in 
Italy and Egypt, and political missions to Berlin, and St. Petersburgh — 
visits Madame Bonoeil, a female intriguer — his- blunder in consequence 

—the PoUsh Count S tz — his character — dupes Duroc — Duroc's 

marriage. 

LETTER IL 

Joseph Buonaparte — his character as a negotiator — the puppet of Talley- 
rand. Talleyrand's intrigues, and motives for employing the brothers 
of Buonaparte. Lucien's embassy to Spain. Joseph's rapacity, connec- 
tion vs^ith an army contractor, and stock-jobbing. Secret articles of the 
treaty of Luneville — Buonaparte's offence at them — reproaches Talley- 
rand. Departure of Lord Whitworth in 1803 — Buonaparte's rage and 
speech to Talleyrand on the occasion, and violent conduct towards his 
mother, wife, &c. 

LETTER III. 

Debates on the religious concordat — opposed by different factions— Buon- 
aparte's mother, how far instrumental in procuring the restoration of 
religious worship. Cardinal Gonsalvi and Bishop Bernier — their in- 
trigues and characters. Madame Buonaparte's astonishment on being 
ordered to attend mass, &c. — her hypocrisy — watched by spies — her 
mode of passing her time at chapel discovered — regulations in conse- 
quence. Conversation at Viscount de Segur"s, on the religious princi- 
ples of the French — imprudent remark of a young officer' — ^the cause of 
his transportation to Cayenne. 

LETTER IV. 

The assumption of the Imperial dignity, long determined on by Buona- 
parte — delayed by the rupture with England. His good fortune mista- 
ken for political foresight. The disgrace of Moreau, the murder of the, 
Duke of Enghien, Pichegru, and Georges, and the treachery towards 
Mr. Drake, not necessary steps to his elevation. Moreau not dangerous 
as a rival to Buonaparte — why not assassinated. Honoiu-able conduct of 
Pichegru, the day before hie d'^at^i. Murat the executioner of the Duke 
of Enghiep. 

B 



ii CONTENTS. 

LETTER V. 

The characters of the principal emigrants well known to the French go- 
vernment — Mehee de la Touche— his perfidy and mgratitude — his mis- 
sion and intrigues in England — refused the wages of his infamy by Tal- 
leyrand. Real, a forgery committed by him in 1788 — strange mixture 
of society at his house. Madame de Soubray— her severe reproof of 
Mehee de la Touche. • 

LETTER VI. 

Unliappiness of Madame Napoleone on the day of her coronation — discipline 
of the Coiu-t of St. Cloud entirely military — formation of the household 
entrusted to Madame Napoleone — consequent embarrassment — extri- 
cated by an expedient proposed by De Segur. Madame Napoleone con- 
fined — released at the intercession of her daughter. 

LETTER VII. 

Religious discussion tolerated — why — remonstrance of Cardinal Caprara 
on the subject. Two authors transported to Cayenne — Pigault Le Brun 
owes his escape to Madame Murat — Cardinal Caprara's influence over 
Buonaparte — defeats a cabal formed against him, and tm-ns it to his ad- 

^ vantage — employed by the Pope in his secret negotiations at Paris— 
teazes Buonaparte, and is confined by him, but obtains his object — ^trick 
attempted to be played upon him, ends unfortunately for the contrivers. 

LETTER VIII. 

Grave dress and puritanical demeanor of the company at Madame Napo- 
leone's last levee previous to meeting the Pope — Buonaparte surround- 
ed by Cardinals and Priests — remark of General Kellerman, occasions 
his disgrace — conduct of the company on quitting the levee — Princess 
Borghese's ideas respecting a parrot and an almoner, monkeys and chap, 
lains. 

LETTER IX. 

The reception of Buonaparte as Emperor by the army of England, not flat- 
tering — ascribed by him to the adlierents of Pichegru and Moreau — his 
conduct in consequence — orders a grenadier to be shot, and disbands a 
regiment. Effect produced on the military by the disti-ibution of the 
ribands, &c. of the Legion of Honour. The French ports declared to 
be in a state of blockade by the English — Buonaparte's rage and agita- 
tion — fires at some British cruizers — breaks six officers of artillery, and 
assaults another — quits the camp in disgust. 

LETTER X. 

Count Cobentzel advises his sovereign to assume the title of Emperor of 
Austria — his political employments and character — his passion for wo- 
men — Talleyi'and's opinion of him — invited by Buonaparte to visit the 
camps of the army of England. Talleyrand's note, proscribing all British, 
agents and ambassadors. Buonaparte's arrival at Aix la Chapelle — ^is 
met there by the foreign ambassadors — ^jiresented with relics of Charle- 
magne, and punishes a German professor for proving them forgeries. 

LETTER XI. 

Buonaparte finds his wife involved in gambling debts, and surrounded by 
Jews and other creditors — Talleyr^d's mode of settling their demands 



CONTENTS. iii 

—Count de Segur completes Buonaparte's household establishment— 
his character, and public emplojments — his domestic misfortunes. Cha- 
racter of the members of Buonaparte's civil list — methods adopted to 
augment it with Prussian and German nobles. 

LETTER XII. 

Buonaparte's intention to seize on the empire of Germany — his secret 
treaties with the petty German Princes at Mentz — the French revolu- 
tion not looked on us dangerous in Germany — why. The Elector of Ba- 
varia — his character and obligations to Loui-s XVI — governed by Mont- 
gelas, the idol of illuminati, and patron of atheists — ^the progress of illu- 
mination in Bavaria — Montgelas concerned m the plot against Mr. Drake 
—his character. 

LETTER XIII. 

Attendance of German Princes and Princesses on the Empress Josephine 
at Mentz, and rich presents to her — bribery and corruption openly prac- 
tised there — disappointment of the German Princes — high price demand- 
ed by Talle^Tand for indemnities — his intrigue with the Countess de 

L andtiie Baroness de S z — repulsed by the Princess of H 

Buonaparte's jealousy — mistakes the object of Count de L ge's at- 
tention to the Empress Josephine — his proceedings in consequence.— 
The avarice of the Empress. 

LETTER XIV. 

Former intimacy of the writer with Madame Napoleone and her daughter — 
tlieir friendly behaviour on his first introduction to them smce their ele- 
vation — subsequent change— the writer declines the oiler of a pubhc 
situation — arrested — interview with General Mmat — sentenced to be 
transported to Cayenne on the report of Fouche, but protected by Prin- 
cess Louis — cause of Fouche's enmity — ^liis infamous character, and un- 
bomided authoritj^ — the oubliettes, his invention — his immense property — 
Buonaparte's reasons for employing him. 

LETTER XV. 

The poverty and dependent situation of the foreign Ambassadors at Paris 
— invited by Talleyrand to a diplomatic dinner — his manoeuvre to obtain 
their declarations i-especting the pretended correspondence of Mr. 
Drake — servility of the Danisli and American ambassadors — theis cha- 
racters — Baron de Dreyer's reasons for wishing to maintain his situa- 
tion. Count de Haugwitz — his birth, political life, and character. 

LETTER XVI. 

The writer accepts an invitation from Princess Louis Buonaparte to din- 
ner — The conquest of Great Britain the subject of conversation — dif- 
ferent opinions respecting the proper mode of treating the inhabitants 
when vanquished. Imprudent observations of Marquis de F — ex- 
iled to Blois in consequence, and saved from severer punishment only by 
tlte interference of Princess Louis — her good-natm-e — character of 
Louis. 

LETTER XVII. 

Violent. debates in the Sacred College, on the journeyof the Pope to France 
— the members bribed by Cardinal Fesch. Birth of Cardinal Fesch — 
his life and adventures — his marriage, and desertion of his wife — ^liei- 



iv CONTENTS. 

application to the Pope — his libertinism and adventure at Lyons — his 
wealth, dignities, and expectations. ' 

LETTER XVIIL 

The Margrave of Baden made an Elector by the intrigues of Talleyrand 
and Baron Edelsheim. Character and political life of Edelsheim. 
Haughty and indecent conduct of Buonaparte to the Elector at Mentz — • 
secret treaty signed there. The vanity and affected consequence of 
Edelsheim played on and exposed by Talleyrand — his fondness for or- 
ders of knighthood — fawns on Buonaparte, to obtain admission into the 
Legion of Honour. 

LETTER XIX. 

The journey of the Pope to France unfavourable to the cause of religion. 
The restoration of Christianity the most popular act of Buonaparte's 
government — the opinion of the people respecting the act of inaugura- 
tion by the Pope — their faith in his infallibility shaken. Manners and 
character of the Pope — promises made to him by Buonapai-te not per- 
formed — refuses to admit De Lalande to see him — De Lalande's athe- 
ism — enmity between him and Talleyrand. The Pope's aversion to 
Fouche — FoucLe s impious conduct at Lyons. 

LETTER XX. 

Buonaparte's mother the favourite of the Pope — family parties invited to 
meet him — ceremony observed on such occasions. Superstition of Ma- 
dame LK:titia Buonaparte — ^lier fondness for rehcs — buys the shoulder- 
bone of St. John the Baptist — robbed of her relics — Foucl'^ applied to — 
who discovers pieces of them all in the possession of a favovu-ite servant 
— the rest found on Madame Genlis, who had bought them of a priest — 
the priest ai-rested — claims the protection of Madame Lsetitia — threat- 
ened with the rack, and confesses his imposture. 

LETTER XXL 

Decrease in the population of Paris not to be lamented — ^the crimes com- 
mitted there not suffered to be published. The system of espionage. 
Immense number of spies — how paid. Buonaparte's private spies imder 
the direction of Duroc. Dispute between Fouclie and Talleyrand. Du- 
croux employed as a spy by Buonaparte and Fouche on each other — ^liis 
blunder and execution. 

LETTER XXIL 

The Pope's manner of passing his time at Paris — great stress laid on his 
performing the ceremony of inauguration, and sacrifices intended to 
have been made, had he refused — all promises to him disregarded — his 
blind partiality for Buonaparte. Caprara dissuades Buonaparte from be- 
ing crowned by the Pope as King of Italy. 

LETTER XXIII. 

King and Qiieen of Naples — their firm and dignified conduct. Chevalier 
Acton — ^liis birth — political character — enemy of the French Revolution. 
Neutrality of Naples violated. The removal of Acton insisted on by the 
French government. Marquis de Gallo — ^his public employments — a fa- 
vourite with Buonaparte^— suspected of being tainted with modern phi- 
losophy. The Neapolitan Revolution in 1799 favoured by the Nobles. 
Character of the Marquis de Gallo. 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER XXIV. 



Buonaparte and all his family married by the Pope — ^his corn-tiers and 
grand functionaries by the Cardinals — their regular attendance at mass 
and vespers — trick of Salmatoris to expose their hypocrisy — is pvmish- 
ed. FoucLc's visit to the Imperial chapel — his discovery there. The 
indifference of the common people to religious worship — the miUtary 
compelled to attend mass — singular occurrence in consequence, and 
injustice of Buonaparte. 

LETTER XXV. 

Seizure of Sir George Rumbold — intended to have been tortured and put 
to death — why not — Rheinhard officially disavows the outrage — is dis- 
graced in consequence — his political life and character. Bourrienne — 
his employment under Buonaparte— his dispute with him, and impri- 
sonment — released and pensioned — his extortions and stock-jobbing — 
his character. 

LETTER XXVL 

Joseph Buonaparte's retired mode of life at Paris — his hospitality at 
Morfontaine — amusements there, and freedom allowed to the guests. 
Montaigne, a yovuig poet, a visitor there — his drunkenness — writes a 
poem against it. Madame Joseph's gallantries — duel between her gal- 
lants. Eugenius de Beauharnois forbidden the house of Joseph. Ma- 
dame Miot detected by her husband in an intrigue with Captain d'Hor- 
teuil — the gallant beats Miot, who begs pardon — Miot's infamous life 
and character. 

LETTER XXVIL 

Conduct of the King of Spain — his weak character. The present the 
age of upstarts. The Prince of Peace — his former occupation — his 
want of talents — cause of his advancement — his intrigue witli the 
Queen, and favour with the King — weakness and ignorance of his ad- 
ministration — disgrace, and misfortunes produced by it. Gravina — his 
character and ambition — his military exploits — intrigue with an opera 
girl — his marriage -mania involves him in a disagreeable scrape. 

LETTER XXVIIL 

Vicious morals, gross manners, and open corruption of the Court of St. 
Cloud. Anecdotes. Merlin of Douai — his public employments — infa- 
mous character, and great wealth. 

LETTER XXIX. 

Immense number of Buonaparte's household troops — -regularly paid, and 
strictly disciplined — their privileges, &c. Military reviews — their use 
— less frequent since Buonaparte's coronation. Number of military 
posted in and near Paris. Army of Invalids — their prejudices — how 
employed. Mode of enforcing payment of taxes at Paris. Houses of 
the invalids — their reading-rooms, libi-aries, &c. — their licentiousness 
and crimes — screened from punishment by the orders of Buonaparte. 
Rabais, a horse grenadier — his amours and debaucheries — accused be- 
fore Thuriot, and acquitted — his intrigue with Madame Thuriot — dis- 
covered by her jealousy — Thuriot applies in vain for redress. Rabais's 
intrigue with Madame Bachiocchi — denounced by Thuriot — arrest and 
punishment of Rabais — curious effects discovered in his trunk — Thu- 
riot's rage and violence in consequence — his employment and crimes. 



Vi CONTENTS. 

LETTER XXX. 

The writer visits Lucien Buonapax-te at his country seat — Lucien's valu- 
able collection of pictures — his hospitality and eng'aging manners con- 
trasted virith those of Napoleone and Joseph — his liberality — anecdotes 
— his republicanism — his vices compared w^ith those of Napoleone — 
his immense Avealth, how acquired — instance of his generosity and 
perversity. 

LETTER XXXL 

Reasons for not incorporating the Batavian republic with the French em- 
pire — partition treaty of Holland offered by France to Prussia — why 
declined. Buonaparte displeased wth the Batavian government — vio- 
lates its neutrality — remonstrance of Count Markofl, how answered 
by Buonaparte — his determination to change the form of government 
in Holland —difficulty of finding fit magistrates — Holland not kttely 
productive of great men — Admiral de Winter — his character — political 
connections and employments — Generals Daendeis and Dumonceau — 
their lives and characters. 

LETTER XXXII. 

Buonaparte advises Prussia of his intention to change the form of govern- 
ment in Holland — chief magistra: es thought of — young Prince of Orange 
— Elector of Bavaria — Buonaparte's inoeasing displeasure with the 
Batavian directory — intended to make his brother Stadtholder. Schim- 
melpennuick — his education — want of talents — apolitical connections and 
opiiiions — his embassy to France — bribes Talle\Tand to procure him the 
appointment of Grand Pensionaiy — his character — Madame Schimmel- 
penninck — her talents and amiable manners — Schimmelpenninck's fe- 
male friends of the Palais Royal. 

LETTER XXXIII. 

Buonaparte's cool reception at Milan — ascribed by him to the intrigues 
of England and Russia — measures of security adopted. Frequency of 
conspiracies in France since the revolution — Buonaparte's reasons for 
concealing them — Plot of Charlotte Encore — attempts to stab Buona- 
parte — ^{irevented by Duroc — expires on the rack, refusing to name her 
accomplices — their plan and names how discovered. 

LETTER XXXIV. 

All women forbidden to approach Buonaparte without permission — a fe- 
male servant of Cardinal Fesc.h, whom Buonaparte had sediw^ed, at- 
tempts to poison him— discovered and poisons herself — plot to assassinate 
him at Milan — his agitation on the discovery — speech of one of 'the 
conspirators, who stabs himself — the others torn to pieces on the rack 
— proceedings in conseqtience of tliis conspiracy. Buonaparte an ob- 
ject of ridicide in Italy — league of generals against him — its object — 
the generals disgraced. 

LETTER XXXV. 

Vanity and caprice of Buonaparte — his rage, on the Emperor of Germa- 
ny's refusing to become a member of the Legion of Honour — his 
threat, and violent conduct td the Austrian ambassadoi- — determines to 
incorporate the Ligiu'ian republic with France — Salicetti, the Frenclv 
minister at Genoa — his birth — employments — a terrorist— recommends 



CONTENTS. vii 

Buonapai'te to Barvas — displeases him by his familiarity. Liicien Buon- 
aparte intended to have been made Sovereign of the LjgiirliiU republic 
— vsrhy not — the chang-e of govei-iiment how etTected — the Doge and 
Ligui'ian Deputation do homag-e to Bu-onaparte Jis sovereig-n at Milan — 
their gi-ief and indignation — The Pa triotic Robbers — stop Salicet- 
ti, and seize his papers — Patrioi ic Avengers. 

LETTER XXXVI. 

Exchange of orders of knighthood between Buonaparte and sovereign 
princes. Foreign ambassadois invited to his coronation at Milan — 
some decline to attend. Expenses of the journey to Milan, and coro- 
nation — General Joiu-dan — Ins marriage, and military appointments — 
cause of his enmity to Pichegru — his military and political exploits— 
his quarrel with Massena — his character. 

LETTER XXXVIL 

Conservative Senate, its heterogeneous composition — character of its 
members. Senatorial Commission of Personal Liberty — its members — 
Lenoir Laroche, Boissy d'Anglas, Sers — their" lives and character. 
Senatorial Commission of the Liberty of the Press — Garat and Roede- 
rer its principal members — pedantry and inhumanity of Garat — an ene- 
my to the liberty of the press — Rosderer unprincipled and profligate — 
rejected by all factions — employed first by Buonaparte — his nicest — his 
wealth, Hbertinism, and foppery. 

LETTER XXXVIII. 

Turkish empire preserved by the mutvial jealousies of Austria, France, 
and Russia — its weakness and anarchy — political intrigues at Constan- 
tinople — the neutrality of the Porte more useful t]ian its alliance — in- 
trigue of the Brissot faction in 1792, to engage it in a war with Aus- 
tria — counteracted by coimt de Choiseul Gouffier, tlien French ambas- 
sador there — De Semonville sep.t on an embassy thither, in 1793, with. 
rich presents — made prisoner by the Austrians — the Sultan declares 
war against France — peace concluded — Sebastiani's mission to Egypt 
and Syria — General Brune appointed ambassador to the Poi-te — 
his character — Ms vices — political intrigues, and military emploj'- 
ments. 

LETTER XXXIX. 

Brune's numerous suite — of what composed — real object of his mission 
avowed by Talle}Tand — Markoff remonstrates. Count Italinski — his 
character — warns the Divan against Brune — libelled by him in the 
Moniteur. Brune's reception at Constantinople — his chagi-in — demands 
his recal, upon the Porte's refusal to acknowledge Buonaparte as em- 
peror. Joubert, a bearer of a letter from Buonaparte to the Grand 
Signior — his education and emplojTnents. Young men educated at the 
expense of the French government in foreign countries — for wliat pur- 
pose. Joubert's interview with the Sultan — how obtained — its result — 
his second message, and failure. French emissaries in Austria, Hun- 
gary, and Servia — French Officers in the service of Czerni Georg'e and 
and Paswan Oglou. Brune quits Constantinople — appointed to the 
command of the army of observation opposite the English coast — his 
instructions — his wealth, ostentation, and vanitv. 



viii CONTENTS. 

LETTER XL. 

Madame de C n — ^her fashionable parties — her marriage with count 

de C n disputed — character of count de C n — his physiog- 
nomical pursuits — trick played on him — purchases Madame de C ^n 

from a Circassian merchant, and sends her to be educated in France— 

his death — Madame de C n's numerous suitors and gallants — her 

pretended brother — her own story — birth and splendid christening of 

the son of count de P 1. Villetard — his crimes and violence — 

his sacrilege and infamous conduct at Loretto — treachery and hypocri- 
sy. Cardinal de Bellois — his birth — governed by his grand vicaries. 

Treilhard steals Madame de C n's gold plates — his political life. 

Madame Francois de Nantes — ^her theft, gambling, and prostitu- 
tion. 

LETTER XLL 

111 temper of Buonaparte on Ms return from Milan — from what arising — 
his violence and insolence to the Prussian and Saxon ambassadors. 
Restoration of ancient etiquette a desirable point to insist on from 
Buonaparte. His conduct to the army of England — Captain Fournois 
stabs himself on being struck by him — his proceedings in consequence- 
Discipline and spirit of the French troops — instance of heroism in a 
private soldier. General Savary — his character, birth, and employ- 
ments. 

LETTER XLII. 

The Bank of France ordered by Buonaparte to furnish him with a mil- 
lion and a half sterling at two hours notice — alarm of the public — run 
upon the bank — notes paid in copper coin— the people grow clamorous 
1— many arrested, and transported to Cayenne — total stagnation of trade 
— some Jews offer to purchase the notes at discount — are transported 
— arrangement for resuming payment — amount of notes in circulation 
at the time of stopping, and of specie in the bank — shock given to its 
credit — attempted to be supported by tyranny — suspicion and severity 
of the police — anecdotes. 

LETTER XLIIL 

Rapacity and extortions of French officers in Hanover — ^bribe Madame 
Buonaparte for their appointment — General Mortier — his birth — ^mili- 
tary appointments — mean addresses to Buonaparte — ^his marriage — his 
lady's gallantries — splendid christening of his child — his wealth and 
character — a great favourite with Buonaparte. Bernadotte — his birth, 
political intrigues, military exploits and violence — sent ambassador to 
Vienna — his insolent coiiduct there — bribed by Buonaparte on his as- 
suming the Imperial dignity — his bai'barities and merciless extortions 
— his character. 

LETTER XLIV. 

Men of letters patronised bj^ Buonaparte — some obscure writers in En- 
gland and Ireland pensioned by him — literary mission to England intend- 
ed — Buonaparte's liberal rewards to his panegyrists — examples — great 
number of works dedicated to him — more by Germans and Italians than 
by the French — Spanicetti and Ritterstien, genealogists of Buonaparte, 
magnificently rewarded by him — vast number of pictures, statues and 
busts representing his person and exploits. Schumaker, a German ar- 
tist, executes a model of a tomb for Buonaparte — ^how remunerated. 



CONTENTS. it 

LETTER XLV. 

Misery and poverty of the French people — wretchedness of the ci-devant 
nobles, and returned emigrants — their employments — anecdotes — grea^ 
number of suicides. 

LETTER ZLVI. 

Different opinions respecting Buonaparte's private character — apparent 
attachment to his wife — his proposed divorce from her, and marriage 
■ with a Russian Princess — his intrigue with Mademoiselle. George — her 
insolent conduct. Chaptal — his former occupation — political intrigues 
and employments — his wealth and character. 

LETTER XLVIL 

Miserable state of Spain — ignorance and presumption of the Prince of 
Peace — the Prince of Asturias endeavours to remove him — ^receives a 
deputation from the Spanish nobles — Character of the Princess of As- 
turias. The Prince of Peace informed of their plans — his" measures in 
consequence — tries to conciliate the Prince and Princess — is repulsed. 
Character of Herman, secretary to the Frencli embassy in Spain — the 
Prince of Peace — his illiberal prejudices — not liked by the Fi'ench go- 
vernment — Herman's intrigue with a girl in the suite of the Princess 
of Astiu'ias — ^his discovery in consequence. Plan of the Prince and 
Princess — disclosed by the French ambassador to the favourite — conse- 
quent proceedings — the Duke of Montemar interferes — ^liis speech to 
the king — note of the Prince of Astiu'ias to the king — their reconcili- 
ation. 

LETTER XLVin. 

The Prince of Peace places spies round the Prince and Princess of Astu- 
rias — his insolent conduct to them — indignation of the Spanish nobles 
— the lustory of Don Carlos written by order of the favourite — burnt 
by the queen's confessor — dissimulation of the Frencli ambassador, 
Beurnonville — immense sums paid by Spain to France — deranged state 
of the Spanish finances — intrigue of Beurnonville to obtain a subsidy — 
the Prince and Princess of Asturias disavow his assei'tions — ^jnmished 
in tlie persons of their favourites — ^revolution and change of dj-nasty 
expected in Spain — sovereignties intended for Buonaparte's brothers — 
Beurnonville's birth and character — his political and military employ- 
ments. 

LETTER XLIX. 

Madame Buonaparte's fears of her brothers-in-law — their powers dmnng 
Napoleone's absence — his policy. Supposed consequence of Buona- 
parte's death. New military manners — General Liebeau — his birth, 
vulgarity, and character — description of a military wedding — Colonel 
Frial — his birth and character — disputes about their respective preten- 
sions to the Imperial crown among the military members of the party— 
a common subject of discussion and dispute among tlie military in 
general. 

LETTER L. 

Madame Chevalier — her person and manners — her early prostitution, and 
first entrance on the stage — her husband joins the Jacobin clubs, and 
is imprisoned as a terrorist. First appearance of Madame Chevalier 



X CONTENTS. 

on the Hamburgh stage— riot in consequence^her gallantries and ava* 
rice — employed by one of Talle5rrand's female agents to go to Russia 
— her intrigues with the Emperor Paul — her cruelty and avarice — pro- 
cures the cruel treatment of the Sardinian secretary — number of hef 
victims — her insinuation, cunning, and eErontery — anecdotes. Female 
political incendiaries and intriguers sent by tlie French government to 
Vienna, St. Petersburgh, and Berlin. Two ladies intended ibr the 
P of W and D of Y their persons and ac- 
complishments. 

LETTER LI. 

Submission of America to the mandates of France. View^s of France on 
the American Continent — foments the disagreement between Spain ' 
and the United States — captures and plunders American ships — con- 
demns all neutral ships trading with St. Domingo. General i*******^ 
French ambassador to the U***'** S***** — discontented with President 
J******** — why — birth of T*******' — his political intr.gues, and mili- 

. tary exploits — horrors committed by him in La Vendee — his letter to 
the National Convention — arrested as a Terrorist — -writes Memoirs of 
the Vendean war. Anecdote of Buonaparte. Wealth of T*******— 
his conceit, and character. 

LETTER LII. 

Discontent of Buonaparte's Italian subjects — their miserable condition — 
oppressed and plundered by French generals and governors. Menou — 
his birth and infamous character. Fate of the nobility who have join- 
ed the French Revolution. Melzi-Eril seduced by French philosophers 
— approves of the French Revolution — appointed Vice-president of the 
Italian Republic — his chagi-in on Buonaparte's assuming the sove- 
reignty — is refused leave to retire to Spain — Attempts suicide by poi- 
son. 

LETTER LIIL 

The foreign ambassadors hesitate to salute Cambaceres and Le Brun, Se- 
rene Highnesses — Buonaparte insists — they bribe Talleyrand, who ob- 
viates the difficulty. Cambaceres bribes Talleyrand, and is created a 

Prince. Madame B s, a female intriguer -and tool of Talleyrand, 

alarms the Bavarian minister Cetto^he conducts this petty intrigue. 
Cambaceies — his birth — infamous character — raised to the consulate by 
Buonaparte — his wealth and titles — his brother. 

LETTER LIV. 

King of Sweden hated by Buonaparte' — national character of the Swedes 
— cause of Buonaparte's hatred — Baron Ehi-ensward constantly insulted 
by him — orders issued to imprison the Baron for expressing his sen- 
timents. Education and character of Baron Ehrensward. King- of Swe- 
den writes to Buonaparte on the seizure of the Duke of Enghien — re- 
calls Ehrensward, and orders a court mourning. General Caulincourt 
and iifty4>anditti hired to seize the King of Sweden' — intentions of the 
French Government, if their plot had succeeded — their plan to parti- 
tion the Swedish territory. Character of the King of Sweden and his 
counsellors. D'Ehrenheim. Count de Fersen — his attachment and fi- 
delitj^ to the royal family of France — refused admission to the Congress 
of Radstadt by Buonaparte. Baron d'Armfeldt — the friend of Gustavus 
III — ^appointed guardian of the present King — sent ambassador to Italy 



CONTENTS. xi 

—outlawed — stakes refuge in Russia, and serves with distinction under 
Suwarrow — recalled to his country, and restored to liis dignities — his 
military talents and spirit. 

LETTER LV. 

Buonaparte dreads the liberty of the press — all foreign printers and book- 
sellers under the control of his police — emissaries employed to travel 
to collect literary intelligence — number of French newspapers before 
and during the Revolution — i-educed by Buonaparte — under the sole 
direction of Barrere — foreign papers and publications prohibited under 
severe penalties. Examples of severiiy — official presses established to 
forge foreign papers — dangerous to question the veracity of tlie Moni- 
teui\ Anecdote. 

LETTER LVL 

Prince of Borghese — his birth — ;joins the Revolution — ^liis meanness and 
pride — marries Madame Le Clerc's fortune — her vices — despises her 
husband — her curious request to Buonaparte. Buonaparte exacts chas- 
tity from his sisters-in-law — sudden disappearance of Princesses Jo- 
seph's and Louis's gallants. Princess Louis visits Madame Ney — a 
midnight occxu-rence during her stay — she is placed under the care of 
Madame Murat — discovers a singular intrigue — arrangements in con- 
sequence — Princess Louis's maids confined by the police — one of them 
pregnant by Louis. 

LETTER LVIL 

Different sensations of the army of England on being ordered to march 
for Germany — company of performers sent from Paris to amuse them 
— pla}'s and ballads written for the occasion — great effect produced by 
them — the Grenadier's Adieu, a ballad written by three authors pro- 
fusely rewarded by Buonaparte. Stanzas on the rumour of a war with 
Austria — distributed to the company at Madame Joseph's. Other poet- 
asters how rewarded. Curious blunder at Madame Talleyrand's. 
Anecdote of an ancient Tyrant. 

LETTER LVIII. 

Portugal forced from her neutrality by her connexion with Spain — Poi*- 
tuguese plenipotentiary at Paris in 1797 imprisoned in the Temple- 
extravagant demands of France on Portugal supported by the Prince 
of Peace — unmerciful plunder of Portugal by France. General Lasnes 
— his birth — former emplo3anents, and infamous character — his mis- 
sion to Portugal a punishment for robbing the miUtary chest — his inso- 
lent manners at the Court of Lisbon — smuggles — quits his post, and 
returns without apology — demands a change of ministry — is recalled. 
General Junot — his birth — military appointments and exploits — his ty- 
ranny and corruption while Governor of Paris — ^liis connexion with a 
gang of robbers — anecdote of his swindling. Fitte, his infamous cha- 
racter — emigrates to England — cheats the English ministry — procures 
the murder of his brother and sister. 

LETTER LIX. 

Impolicy of the league of 1793 in admitting any neutrality — danger of 
neutral states. The late Count Bernstorf — his political character. The 
present Coi^jit Bernstorf — ^liis system of politicr. not adapted to exist- 



xii CONTENTS. 

jjig eircvimstances— impolicy in chang-ing the alliance of Russia for 
that of Prussia. Prince Royal of Denmark, his talents and character 
—incapacity of his counsellors. A paragraph in the Moniteur dis- 
bands a Danish army — neutrality of Denmark violated. Grouvelle, 
late French ambassador in Denmark — protects and encourages illumi- 
nati and innovators there — his education — ingi-atitude to the Prince of 
Conde — his talents and vices. Dag-uesseau, his insignificant character* 
—his secretary, Desaugiers, an incendiary. 

LETTER LX. 

Avarice and rapacity of the Buonaparte family — immense wealth of Na- 
poleone — ^liis imperial and royal palaces. Private chateaux of Madame 
Napoleone. Palaces and estates of Joseph, Lucien, Louis, and Je- 
rome — of Madame Laetitia Buonaparte, Pi'incess Bachiocchi, Santa 
Cruce, Murat, Borghese — of Cardinal Fesch — and other relatives of 
Buonaparte. Unparallelled revolution of property — -just cause of alarm 
to England. 

LETTER LXL 

Daru pays an immense bribe for the place of commissary-general to the 
French army in Germany — his great wealth acquired by gambling — the 
terror of all the gambling banks on the Continent. Extortions of the 
French Generals in Germany. Augereau, his birth — serves as a spy 
— as a common soldier, deserts — is flogged — his infamy and crimes. 
Van Damme, his birth — condemned to be hanged — spared by the 
judge, and sent to the galleys — his ingi-atitude — disgraced by Moreau 
and Pichegru for his ferocity and crimes — restored to rank by Buona- 
parte — his wealth. 

LETTER LXII. 

Pillage and extortions of the French armies. General Ney, his conduct 
at Wetzlar — his birtli, former occupation — political intrigues and mi- 
litary appointments — his wife, maid of honour to Empress Josephine 

her bii-th — gallantries — pleasing manners — gambling and prostitution. 
Prince Murat, his crimes — birth — marries Buonaparte's sister — his im- 
mense wealth — promotes and enriches his relations — effect of his ele- 
vation on his father and mother. Rapine the chief object of revolu- 
tionists. Murat the executioner of Buonaparte's despotic and murder- 
ous commands — jealous of his wife with her brother Lucien — her co- 
quetry and gallantries — her favourite, Flahault. 

LETTER LXIIL 

Increased vigilance of the police at Paris since Buonaparte's departure 
for German)' — all mandates of arrest expedited by Louis Buonaparte 
— his vicious character — a tragical intrigue — another intrigue. 

LETTER LXIV. 

Dignified condvict of Russia, its able ministers — Couiit Woronzoff— his 
talents, services, and amiable character — instance of his magnanimity. 
Prince Czartorinsky — ^his great information and polished manners, 
Coimt de Markoff^ — his political services — exiled by Paul — recalled by 
Alexander, and appointed ambassador to France — his surprise at the 
conduct of Buonapaz-te to foreig-n ambassadors — his witty letter to his 



CONTENTS. xia 

Court on tli« occasion— his dignified conduct — ^hated by Talleyrand. 
Talleyrand's low malice — attempts to corrupt the fidelity of Madame 
Pus, the mistress of Count Markoff.— conversatioii of Count Markoff 
witli him on the subject, ^ 

LETTER LXV. 

Legion of Honour, when determined on — distribution of arms of honour 
among the military — creation of knights — members of the Legion of 
Honour divided into classes — Buonaparte's desire to have Sovereigns 
for members — exchange of orders between Buonaparte and the Kings" 
of Spain and Prussia. Foreign orders debased by being conferred on 
Cambaceres, Fouche, &c. Grand officers of the Legion of Honour, 
ci-devant tailors, shoemakers, barbers, &c. kings, electors, and princes. 
Effect of the institution on the people — ^Villeaume, an engraver, forges 
letters of knighthood, sells them, and escapes. Baron Von Rinken, 
the agent of a petty German Prince, confined in the Temple for offer- 
ing patents of knighthood to sale. Anecdotes of Captain Rouvais and 
a cobler. Cambaceres reproved for partiality to the Prussian Eagle — 
Buonaparte ornamented with an immense number of Orders — ^present. 
ed with the Grand Cross of Malta. Order of confidence, intended to 
be instituted by the Empress Josephine. — ^her mantle and star. 

LETTER LXVI. 

Fifteen persons brought prisoners from La Vendee — ^their crime not 
known — what reported to be. Impolicy and cruelty of attempting to 
excite an insurrection in the Chouan departments. Apathy of the 
French people — the general poverty — anecdote — poverty of merchants 
and tradesmen — vast number of speculators and bankruptcies — nume- 
rous forgeries and swindling — ^landholders burthened with taxes — ex- 
ample — their spii'it and independence. 

LETTER LXVIL 

Military education of the French youth — the independence of Europe 
threatened by it — the only mode of averting the danger. Berthier's 
compliment to Buonaparte — the advantage of the French over their al- 
lies. Bad consequences of an education entirely military — pointed out 
by Arnaud — his exile from Paris in consequence. Instance of severity 
against a schoolmaster, for deviating from the established mode — his 
pupils taken care of by Government. Another instance of severity in 
this respect. New organization of the Ministry of Police, and num- 
ber of Spies increased. 

LETTER LXVin. 

The Pope's Nuncio publicly rebuked by Buonaparte. The relatives of 
Buonaparte's Great officers generally appointed to the chief dignities 
of the Galilean Church — their infamous characters. The brother of 
General Miollls — his notorious atheism and profligacy — nominated by 
Buonaparte to the Bishopric of Digne — the Pope hesitates to gi-ant a 
bull for that purpose — his Nuncio at Paris applies to Buonaparte — how 
answered — the nomination of Miollls confirmed by the Pope. De- 
bauched character of the Italian Bishops. Anecdotes of the Bishop 
of Pavia, and of his Grand Vicars, Sarini and Rami. Hj^pocrisy of 



XIV CONTENTS. 

the French Clergy — anecdotes. Indifference of the French Govern- 
ment respecting' the Religious Establishment — want of Ministers — to 
what to be attributed — Buonaparte refuses the Pope to except the Stu- 
dents in Theology from the Military Conscription — permits him to es- 
tablish a Seminary in the Ecclesiastical States. 

LETTER LXIX. 

Violation of the Prussian Neutrality — sudden alteration in the expres- 
sions of the French Courtiers in regard to Prussia — whence arising. 
Buonaparte's ascendancy in Prussia — friendly intercourse between him 
and the King of Prussia, and the Empress Josephine and the Qiieen. 
Friendship of upstarts dangerous. Dlu-oc's mission to Berlin — its ob- 
ject — followed by warlike preparations in Prussia — necessity of Prus- 
sia's instantly joining the league against France. Reports of an alli- 
ance between Prussia and England. A war with Prussia desii'ed in 
France-~why. 

LETTER LXX. 

Instances of impolitic and degrading civility of the Prussian Monarchs to 
the French. Field-marshal Knobelsdorff, his satirical reply to Sieyes. 
General Knobelsdorff, his insignificant character — affection for Buona- 
parte — his favour with his Sovereign, and political missions. Object 
of Count Haugwitz's mission to Vienna — annvial subsidy proposed by 
France to Prussia refused. Baron de Hardenberg — ^liis political cha- 
racter — his talents — public employments — his private agents in foreign 
countries. Baron de Bulow — his singular person and manners — con- 
fined in the Temple, and supported by Sir Sydney Smith. Marquis de 
Lucchesini, his character and political transactions. Marchioness de 
Luccliesini — her manners and gallantries. Prince Bachiocchi, his for- 
mer occupation. 

LETTER LXXI. 

Unexampled cruelty of the French Government to Captain Wright. Ne- 
cessity of regulating the distinction and treatment of prisoners of war 
— generous conduct of the English to the officers and men of French 
ships landing rebels in Scotland and Ireland, and malefactors in Wales, 
The firmness of Captain Wright, offends the French Government — 
riches and rank offered to him, indignantly refused — he is put on the 
rack, and most inhumanly toi-tured — his heroic conduct — is placed un- 
der the care of a surgeon — new offers made him — again racked — un- 
dergoes the INFERNAL toi'mcnts — description of them — strangled by 
a Mameluke. The particulars of his horrid transaction how discovered — 
the release of Captain Wright promised to the Spanish ambassador- 
why. 

LETTER LXXIL 

Great changes to be made in the constitution and internal Government of 
France, should Buonaparte return victorious — heterogeneous compo- 
sition of the tribunate and legislative corps. Carnot declaims against 
Buonaparte's Imperial dignity, by his permission — his birth — education 
and ingratitude to the House of Bom-bon — his crimes and falsehood — 
his letter to Lebon — his talents and presumption — his wealth — instance 
of his libertinism and cruelty — despised and mistrusted by Buonaparte. 
Cavaignac — his former occupation — his revolutionary exploits — ^his atro- 
cities^.— anecdotes. Pinet — his lust and cruelty. 



CONTENTS. XV 

LETTER LXXIII. 
Vast naval schemes of Buonaparte — his immense resources— great num. 
ber of ships built since the present war— Malouet's official account of 
the number of officers and sailors^the conscripts universally prefer the 
naval to the military service. Genoa, an important naval station acquir- 
ed by France — number of ships building there and at Antwerp — Naples 
and Venice threatened — deficiency of French admirals — Murat appoint- 
ed to the chief command of the combined fleets — the proposed plan of 
operations, deranged by subsequent eyents. Admiral Truguet, his opi- 
nion of the French flotillas — occasion of his disgrace — ^his character — 
public employmenss — hated by Talleyrand — canes him publicly. Ville- 
neuve — his naval exploits — his gasconade. Gantheaume — his promo- 
' lions — saves himself by swimming, when I'Orient blew up at Aboukir — 
letter of Buonaparte to him on the occasion — his naval exploits and cha- 
racter. La Crosse— his intrigues, fanaticism, and cruelty. 

LETTER LXXIV. 
Apathy of the French people — indiflerent £^bout the victories obtained 
over the Austrians. Rejoicmgs at Madame Joseph Buonaparte's — 
patriotic verses and ballads — list of Buonaparte's intended Kings, Em- 
perors, &c. Artliur O'Connor, his present rank and views in France; 
The Irish rebels universally despised — treated as criminals, and act as 
such — ^their infamy and ingratitudCi^ Anecdote. 

LETTER LXXV. 
Absurdity and incoherence of the plan of the campaign of the Austrians. 
Inactivity of the army under the Archduke Charles, to what to be attri- 
buted — character of the Archduke — his military life — respected by his 
enemies — his proclamations composed with great adroitness. Massena 
— deserts the army of his Sovereign — cause of his advancement in the 
French service — his military exploits and merciless pillage — quarrels 
with Buonaparte — appointed by him to the chief command in Italy — his 
wealth and good fortune — Disliked by the Buonapartes for his familiar- 
ity. Great talents of General St. Cyr — his achievements. Count de 
Bellegarde— his eminent services tnd distinguished talents. 

LETTER LXXVI. 

Buonaparte's insolent threat at Ulm against the Emperor of Germany — 
conclusions to be drawn from it — Louis Buonaparte's public comment 
on it. Able Sieyes — his sanguinary plots and intrigues — has betrayed 
and survived all factions — his restlessness and craft — cowardice and 
ambition — ^his wealth — Talleyrand's opinion of him. Buonaparte's appa- 
rently indiscreet threat at Ulm accounted for. General Maimont — his 
military education, and public emplojments — his honourable character 
,■ — Buonaparte demands for him in marriage the daughter of the banker 
Perregaux — Industry and ambition of Periegaux — his public life — and 
intrigue with Mademoiselle Mars. General Marmont's distinguished 
services — a great favouiite of Buonaparte. 

LETTER LXXVII. 

Another great revolution supposed necessary to ccu.rterbalance that of 
France — Insignificance and presumption of General Mack — his personal 
intrepidity at Lissa — his theoretical knowledge and declamation impost- 
on the Emperor Joseph — ^his campaigns — his bad conduct at the head of 
the Neapolitan army — his pusillanimous conduct in the present cam- 
paign— ^^his ill health— his fdelitv and honoiu-. 



THE 



SECRET HISTORY 



COURT AND CABINET 



ST. CLOUD. 



LETTER I. 

Paris, Jlugu&t 1805. 



MY LORD, 



T PROMISED you not to pronounce in haste on persons and 
■'' events passing under my eyes: thirty-one months have 
quickly passed away, since I became an attentive spectator of 
the extraordinary transactions, and of the extraordinary cha- 
racters, of the extraordinary Court and Cabinet of St. Cloud. 
If my talents to delineate equal my zeal to inquire, and my 
industry to examine ; if I am as able a painter as I have been 
an indefatigable observer, you will be satisfied, and with your 
approbation at once sanction and reward my labours. 

With most princes, the supple courtier and the fawning 
favourite have greater influence than the profound statesman 
and. subtle minister; and the determinations of cabinets are 
therefore frequently prepared in drawing-rooms, and discussed 
in the closet. The politician and the counsellor are frequently 
applauded or censured for transactions, which the intrigues of 
anti-chambers conceived, and which cupidity and favour gave 
power to promulgate. 

It is very generally imagined, but falsely, that Napoleone 
Buonaparte govei'ns, or rather tyrannizes by himself; according 

B 



2 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

to his own capacity, caprices, or interest: that all his acts, al! 
his changes, are the sole consequence of his own exclusive, 
unprejudiced will, as well as unlimited authority ; that both his 
greatness and his littleness, his successes and his crimes, ori- 
ginate entirely with himself; that the fortunate hero, who march- 
ed triumphant over the Alps, and the dastardly murderer 
that disgraced human nature at Jaffa, because the same per- 
son, owed victory to himself alone, and by himself alone com- 
manded massacre ; that the same genius, unbiassed and unsup- 
ported, crushed factions, erected a throne, and reconstructed 
racks ; that the same mind restored and protected Christianity, 
and proscribed and assassinated a d'Enghien. 

All these contradictions, all these virtues and vices, may be 
found in the same person ; but Buonaparte, individually, or 
isolated^ has no claim to them. Except on some sudden occa- 
sions, that call for immediate decision, no sovereign rules less by 
himself than Buonaparte ; because no sovereign is more sur- 
rounded by favourites and counsellors, by needy adventurers 
and crafty intriguers. '~ 

"What sovereign has more relatives to enrich, or more ser- 
vices to recompense ; more evils to repair, more jealousies to 
dread, more dangers to fear, more clamours to silence ; or stands 
more in need of information and advice ? Let it be remembered, 
that he, who now governs empires and nations, ten years ago 
commanded only a battery ; and five years ago was only a mili- 
tary chieftain. The diffei'ence is as immense, indeed, between « 
the sceptre of a monarch and the sword of a general, as between 
the wise legislator, who protects the lives and property of his 
contemporaries, and the hireling robber who wades through 
rivers of blood to obtain plunder at the expense and misery of 
generations. The lower classes of all countries have produced 
persons, who have distinguished themselves as warriors ; but 
what subject has yet usurped a throne, and by his eminence and 
achievements, without infringing on the laws and liberties of his 
country, proved himself worthy to reign ? Besides, the educa- 
tion which Buonaparte received was entirely military ; and a 
man (let his innate abilities be ever so surprising or excellent) 
who, during the first thirty years of his life, has made either 
military or political tactics or exploits his only study, certainly 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 3 

cannot excel equally in the cabinet and in the camp. It would 
be as foolish to believe, as absurd to expect, a perfection almost 
beyond the reach of any man ; and of Buonaparte more than of 
any one else. A man who, like him, is the continual slave of 
his own passions, can neither be a good nor a just, an inde- 
pendent nor immaculate master. 

Among the courtiers who, ever since Buonaparte was made 
First Consul, has maintained a great ascendency over him, is 
-rthe present grand marshal of his court, the general of division, 
Diiroc. With some parts, but greater presumption, this young 
man is destined by his master to occupy the most confidential 
places near his person ; and to his care are entrusted the most 
difficult and secret missions at foreign courts. When he is 
. absent from France, the liberty of the continent is in danger ; 
and when in the Thuileries, or at St. Cloud, Buonaparte thinks 
himself always safe. 

Gerard Christophe Michel Duroc was born at Ponta-Mous- 
son, in the department of Meurthe", on the 25th of October 1772, 
of poor but honest parents. His father kept a petty chandler's 
shop;-bi?f by the interest and generosity of Abbe Duroc, a 
distant relation, he was so well educated, that, in March 1792, 
he became a sub-lieutenant of the artillery. In 1796 he served 
in Italy, as a captain, under General Andreossy, by whom he 
was recommended to General I'Espinasse, then commander of 
the artillery of the army of Italy, who made him an aide-de- 
camp. In that situation Buonaparte remarked his activity, and 
was pleased with his manners, and therefore attached him as an 
aide-de-camp to himself. Duroc soon became a favourite with 
his chief, and, notwithstanding the intrigues of his rivals, he has 
continued to be so to this day. 

It has been asserted, by his enemies no doubt, that by impli- 
cit obedience to his general's orders, by an unresisting compla- 
cency, and by executing, without hesitation, the most cruel 
mandates of his superior, he has fixed himself so firmly in his 
good opinion, that he is irremoveable. It has also been stated 
that it was Duroc who commanded the drowning and burying. 
alive of the wounded French soldiers in Italy in 1797 ; and that 
it was he who inspected their poisoning in Syria in 1799, where 
he was wounded during the siege of St. Jean d'Acre. He was 



1^ 



4 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

among the few officers whom Buonaparte selected for his com-^ 
panions, when he quitted the army of Egypt, and landed with 
him in France in October 1799. 

Hitherto Duroc had only shown himself as a brave soldier and 
obedient officer; but after the revolution which made Buona- 
parte a First Consul, he entered upon another career. He was 
then, for the first time, employed in a diplomatic mission to 
Berlin, where he so far insinuated himself into the good graces 
of their Prussian Majesties, that the King admitted him to the 
royal table, and on the parade at Potsdam presented him to his 
generals and officers, as an aide-de-camp du plus grand homme 
que je connoia ; whilst the Queen gave hfm a scarf, knitted by 
her own fair hands. 

The fortunate result of Duroc's intrigues in Prussia, in 1799, 
encouraged Buonaparte to dispatch him, in 1801, to Russia; 
where Alexander I received him with that noble condescension, 
so natural to this great and good prince. He succeeded at St. Pe- 
tersburgh in arranging the political and commeixial difficulties 
and disagreements between France and Russia ; but his pro- 
posal for a defensive alliance was declined. 

An anecdote is related of his political campaign in the North, 
upon the barren banks of the Neva, which, in causing much 
entertainment to the inhabitants of the fertile banks of the Seine, 
has not a little displeased the military diplomatist. 

Among Talleyrand's female agents, sent to cajole Paul I, dur- 
ing the latter part of his reign, was a Madame Bonoeil, whose 
real name is de F— — .. When this unfortunate prince was no 
moi'e, most of the French male and female intriguers in Rus- 
sia thought it necessary to shift their quarters, and to expect 
on the territory of neutral Prussia further instructions from Paris, 
where and how top roceed. Madame Bonosil had removed to 
Koenigsberg. In the second week of May 1801, when Duroc 
passed through that town for St. Petersburgh, he visited this 
lady, according to the orders of Buonaparte, and obtained from 
her a list of the names of the principal persons, who were in- 
clined to be serviceable to France, and might be trusted by him 
upon the present occasion. By inattention or mistake she had 
mis-spelled the name of one of the most trusty and active adhe- 
rents of Buonaparte ; and Duroc, therefore, instead of addressing 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 5 

himself to the Polisli Count de S — Iz, went to tlie Polish Count 
de S .■ - .tz. This latter was as much flattered as surprised, 
upon seeing an aide-de-camp and envoy of the First Consul of 
France enter his apartments, seldom visited before but by usu- 
rers, gamesters, and creditors ; and on hearing the object of this 
visit, began to think either the envoy mad or himself dreaming. 
Understanding, however, that money would be of little consider- 
ation, if the point desired by the First Consul could be carried, 
he determined to take advantage of this fortunate hit, and in- 
vited Duroc to sup with him the same evening ; when he pro-- 
mised him he should meet with persons who could do his bu- 
siness, provided his pecuniary resources were as ample as he 
had stated. 

This Count de S - tz, was one of the most extravagant 
and profligate subjects that Rvissia had acquired by the parti- 
tion of Poland. After squandering away his own patrimony, 
he had ruined his mother and two sisters, and subsisted now en- 
tirely by gambling and borrowing. Among his associates, in 
similar circumstances with himself, was a Chevalier de Causae, 
a French adventurer, pretending to be an emigrant from the 
vicinity of Thoulouse. To him was communicated what had 
happened in the morning ; and his advice was asked how to act 
in the evening. It was soon settled, that de Causae should be 
transformed into a Russian Count de W— , a nephew and con- 
fidential secretary of the chancellor of the same name ; and that 
one Caumartin, another French adventurer, who taught fencing 
at St. Petersburgh, should act the part of Prince de M— , an 
aide-de-camp of the emperor ; and that all three together should 
strip Duroc, and share the spoil. At the appointed hour Buon- 
aparte's agent arrived, and was completely the dupe of these 
adventurers, who plundered him of twelve hundred thousand 
livres, 50,000i^. Though not many days passed before he dis- 
covered the imposition, prudence prevented him from denounc- 
ing the impostors ; and this blunder would have remained a se- 
cret between himself, Buonaparte, and Talleyrand, had not the 
unusual expenses of Caumartin excited the suspicion of the 
Russian police miinister, who soon discovered the source from 
which they had flowed. De Causae had the imprudence to re- 
turn to this capital last spring, and is now shut up in the Tem- 
ple, where he probably will be forgotten. 



6 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

As this loss was more ascribed to the negligence of' Madame 
lionceil, than to the mismanagement of Duroc, or his want 
of penetration, his reception at the Thuileries, though not so 
gracious as on his return from Berlin, nineteen months before, 
was however such as convinced him, that if he had not increased, 
he had at the same time not lessened, the confidence of his 
master : and indeed shortly afterwards Buonaparte created him 
first prefect of his palace, and procured him for a wife the only- 
daughter of a rich Spanish banker. Rumour however . says, 
that Buonaparte was not quite disinterested, when he com- 
manded and concluded this match, and that the fortune of 
Madame Duroc has paid for the expensive supper of her husband 
with Count de S tz at St. Petersburgh. 



LETTER II. 

Paris ^ August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THOUGH the treaty of Luneville will probably soon be buried 
in the rubbish of the treaty of Amiens, the influence of their 
parents in the cabinet of St. Cloud is as great as ever : I say 
their parents, because the crafty ex-bishop Talleyrand, foreseeing 
the short existence of these bastard diplomatic acts, took care 
to compliment the innocent Joseph Buonaparte with a share in 
the parentage, although they were his own exclusive oflspring. 

Joseph Buonaparte, who, in 1797, from an attorney's clerk, 
at Ajaccio, in Corsica, was at once transformed into an ambas- 
sador to the court of Rome, had hardly read a treaty, or seen 
a dispatch written, before he was himself to conclude the one, 
and to dictate the other. Had he not been supported by able 
secretaries, government would soon have been convinced, that 
it is as impossible to confer talents, as it is easy to give places 
to men to whom nature has refused parts, and on whom a scanty 
or neglected education has bestowed no improvements. Deep 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 7 

and reserved, like a true Italian, but vain and ambitious, like his 
brothers, under the character of a statesman, he has only been 
the political puppet of Talleyrand. If he has sometimes been 
applauded upon the stages where he has been placed, he is also 
exposed to the hooting and hisses of the suffering multitude ; 
while the minister pockets undisturbed all the entrance-money, 
and conceals his wickedness and art under the cloak of Joseph ; 
which protects him besides against the anger and fury of Napo- 
leone. No negotiation of any consequence is undertaken, no 
diplomatic arrangements are under consideration, but Joseph is 
always consulted, and Napoleone informed of the consultation. 
Hence none of Buonaparte's ministers has suifered less from his 
violence and resentment than Talleyrand, who in the political 
department governs him who governs France and Italy. 

As early as 1800, Talleyrand determined to throw the odium 
of his own outrages against the law of nations upon the brother 
of his master. Lucien Buonaparte was that year sent ambas- 
sador to Spain, but not sharing with the minister the large 
profits of his appointment, his diplomatic career was but short. 
Joseph is as greedy and as ravenous as Lucien, but not so frank 
or indiscreet. Whether he knew or not of Talleyrand's immense 
gain by the pacification at Luneville in February 1801, he did 
not neglect his own individual interest. The day previous to 
the signature of this treaty, he dispatched a courier to the rich 
army contractor CoUot, acquainting him, in secret, of the issue 
of the negotiation, and ordering him at the same time to pur- 
chase six millions of livres, 250,000/. in the stocks, on his 
account. On Joseph's arrival at Paris, Collot sent him the state 
bonds for the sum ordered, together with a very polite letter ; 
but though he waited on the grand pacificator several times 
afterwards, all admittance was refused, until a douceur of one 
million of livres, nearly 42,000/. of Collot's private profit, opened 
the door. In return, during the discussions between France 
and England in the summer of 1801, and in the spring of 1802, 
Collot was continued Joseph's private agent, and shared with 
his patron, within twelve months, a clear gain of thirty-two 
millions of livres. 

Some of the secret articles of the treaty of Luneville gave 
Austria, during the insurrection in Switzerland, in the autumn 



8 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

of 1802, an opportunity and a right to make representations 
against the interference of France ; a circumstance which greatly 
displeased Buonaparte, who reproached Talleyrand for his want 
of foresight, and of having been outwitted by the cabinet of 
Vienna. The minister, on the very next day, laid before his 
master the coiTespondence that had passed between him and 
Joseph Buonaparte, during the negotiation, concerning these 
secret articles, which were found to have been entirely proposed 
and settled by Joseph ; who had been induced by his secretary 
and factotum (a creature of Talleyrand) to adopt sentiments, 
for which that minister had been paid, according to report, six 
hundred thousand livres ; 25,000/. Sevei'al other tricks have in 
the same manner been played upon Joseph, who notwithstanding 
has the modesty to consider himself (much to the advantage and 
satisfaction of Talleyrand) the fii'st statesman in Europe, and 
the good fortune to be thought so by his brother Napoleone. 

When a rupture with England was apprehended, in the spring 
of 1803, Talleyrand never signed a dispatch, that was not previ- 
ously communicated to, and approved by Joseph, before its 
contents were sanctioned by Napoleone. This precaution chiefly 
continued him in place, when Lord Whitworth left this capital, 
a departure that incensed Napoleone to such a degree, that he 
entirely forgot both the dignity of his rank amidst his generals, 
a becoming deportment to the members of the diplomatic corps, 
and his duty to his mother and brothers, who all, more or less, 
experienced the effiicts of his violent passions. He thus 
accosted Talleyrand, who purposely arrived late at his circle : 
" Well I the English ambassador is gone ; and we must again 
go to war. Were my generals as great fools as some of my 
ministers, I should despair indeed of the issue of my contest 
with these insolent islanders. Many believe that had I been 
more ably supported in my cabinet, I should not have been 
under the necessity of taking the field, as a I'upture might have 
been prevented." " Such, Citizen First Consul !" answered the 
tre;m bling a nd bowing^ ministeivJ-' is not the opinion of the 
counsellor of s^te, citizen Joseph Buonaparte." Well then,** 
said Napoleone, as recollecting himself, " England wishes for 
war, and she shall suffer for it — This shall be a war of exter- 
mination, depend upon it." The name of Joseph alone moderated 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 9 

Napoleone's fury, and changed its object. It is with him what 
the harp of David was with Saul. Talleyrand knows it, and is 
no loser by that knowledge. I must, however, in justice say, 
that had Buonaparte followed his minister's advice, and suffered 
himself to be entirely guided by his counsel, all hostilities with 
England, at that time, might have been avoided; her government 
would have been lulled into security by the cession of Malta and 
some commercial regulations, and her future conquest, during a 
time of peace, have been attempted upon plans duly organized, 
that might have ensured success. He never ceased to repeat, 
" Citizen First Consul ! some few years longer peace with Great 
Britain, and the Te Deums of modern Britons, for the conquest 
and possession of Malta, will be considered by their children as 
the funeral hymns of their liberty and independence." 

It was upon this memorable occasion, of Lord Whitworth's 
departure, that Buonaparte is known to have betrayed the most 
outrageous acts of passion; he rudely forced his mother from' 
his closet, and forbade his own sisters to approach his person ; 
he confined Madame Buonaparte for several hours to her cham- 
ber ; he dismissed favourite generals ; treated with ignominy 
members of his council of state ; and towards his physician, 
secretaries, and principal attendants, he committed unbecoming 
and disgraceful marks of personal outrage. I have heard it 
affirmed, that though her husband, when shutting her up in her 
dressing-room, put the key in his pocket, Madame Napoleone 
found means to resent the ungallant behaviour of her spouse, 
with the assistance of Madame Remusat. 



10 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

LETTER III. 

Paris, August ISOS.^ 
U\ LORD, 

NO act of Buonaparte's government has occasioned sa 
many, so opposite, -and so violent debates, among the remnants 
of revolutionary factions, composing his senate and council of 
state, as the introduction and execution of the i-eligious concor- 
dat signed with the Pope. Joseph was here again the osten- 
sible negotiator, though he, on this as well as on former occa- 
sions, concluded nothing that had not been prepai'ed and di- 
gested by Talleyrand. 

Buonaparte does not in general pay much attention to the opi- 
nions of others, when they do not agree with his own views 
and interests, or coincide with his plans of reform or innovation ; 
but having, in his public career, professed himself by turns an 
atheist and an infidel, the worshipper of Christ and of Maho- 
met, he could not decently silence those who, after deserting 
or denying the God of their forefathers, and of their youth, con- 
tinued constant and firm in their apostacy. Of those who de- 
liberated concerning the restoration or exclusion of Christianity, 
and the acceptance or rejection of the concordat, Fouche, 
Francois de Nantz, Roederer, and Sieyes, were for the religion 
of nature; Volney, Real, Chaptal, Bourrienne, and Lucieri 
Buonaparte, for atheism; and Portalis, Gregoire, Cambaceres, 
Le Brun, Talleyrand, Joseph and Napoleone Buonaparte, for 
Christianity. Besides the sentiments of these confidential coun- 
sellors, upwards of two hundred memoirs, for or against the 
Christian religion, were presented to the First Consul, by unin- 
vited and volunteer counsellors ; all differing as much from each 
other as the members of his own privy council. 

Many persons do Madame Buonaparte, the mother, the honour 
of supposing that to her assiduous representations is princi- 
pally owing the recal of the priests, and the restoration of the 
altars of Christ. She certainly is the most devout, or rather 
the most superstitious, of her family, and of her name ; but had 
not Talleyrand and Portalis pi'eviously convinced Napoleone of 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 11 

tlie policy of re-establishing a religion, which, for fourteen cen- 
turies, had preserved the throne of the Bourbons from the 
machinations of republicans and other conspirators against mon- 
archy, it is very probable that her representations w;ould have 
been as ineffective as her piety or her prayers. So long ago as 1796, 
she implored the mercy of Napoleone for the Roman Catholics 
in Italy ; and entreated him to spare the Pope, and the papal ter- 
ritory, at the very time that his soldiers were laying waste and 
ravaging the legacy of Bologna, and of Ravenna, both incor- 
porated with his new-formed Cisalpine Republic ; where one of 
his first acts of sovereignty, in the name of the then sovereign 
people, was, the confiscation of church lands, and the sale of 
the estates of the clergy. 

Of the prelates who with Joseph Buonaparte signed the 
concordat, the Cardinal Gonsalvi and the Bishop Bernier have, 
by their labours and intrigues, not a little contributed to the 
present church establishment in this country; and to them 
Napoleone is much indebted for the intrusion of the Buonaparte 
dynasty among the houses of sovereign princes. The former, 
intended from his youth for the church, sees neither honour in 
this world, nor hopes for any blessing in the next, but exclu- 
sively from its bosom and its doctrine. With capacity to figure 
as a country curate, he occupies the post of the chief secre- 
tary of state to the Pope ; and though nearly of the same age, 
but of a much weaker constitution than his sovereign, he was am- 
bitious enough to dpmand Buonaparte^s promise of succeeding 
to the papal see, and weak and wicked enough to wish and ex- 
pect to survive a benefactor of a calmer mind and better health 
than himself. It was he who encouraged Buonaparte to require 
the presence of Pius VII in France, and who persuaded this 
weak pontiff to undertake a journey that has caused so much 
scandal among the truly faithful ; and which, should ever Aus- 
tria regain her fornier supremacy in Italy, will send the present 
Pope to end his days in a convent, and make the successors of 
St. Peter, what this apostle was himself, a bishop of Rome, and 
nothing more. 

Bernier was a curate in La Vendue before the revolution, and 
one of those priests who lighted the torch of civil war in that 
unfortunate country, under pretence of defending the throne of 



13 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

his King, and the altars of his God. He not only possessed 
great popularity among the lower classes, but acquired so far 
the confidence of the Vendean chiefs, that he was appointed one 
of the supreme and directing council of the Royalists and 
Chouans. Even so late as the summer of 1799, he continued not 
only unsuspected, but was trusted by the insurgents in the west- 
ern departments. In the winter, however, of the same year, 
he had been gained over by Buonaparte's emissaries, and was 
seen at his levees in the Thuileries. It is stated that General 
Brune made him renounce his former principles, desert his 
former companions, and betray to the then First Consul of the 
French Republic the secrets of the friends of lawful monarchy, 
of the faithful subjects of Louis XVIII. His perfidy has been 
rewarded with one hundred and fifty thousand livres in ready mo- 
ney, with the see of Orleans, and with a promise of a cardinal's 
hat. He has also, with the Cardinals Gonsalvi, Caprara, Fesch, 
Cambaceres, and Mauri, Buonaparte's promise, and, of course^ 
the expectation of the Roman tiara. He was one of the prelates 
who officiated at the late coronation, and is row confided in as a 
person who has too far committed hitnself with his legitimate, 
prince, and whose past treachery therefore answers for his future 
fidelity. 

This religious concordat, of the 10th September 1801, as 
well as all other constitutional codes emanating from revolution- 
ary authorities, proscribes even in protecting. The professors 
and protectors of the religion of universal peace, benevolence 
and forgiveness, banish, in this concordat, from France, for ever, 
the Cardinals Rohan and Montmorency, and the Bishop of Ar- 
ras ; whose dutiful attachment to their unfortunate prince would, 
in better times, and in a more just and generous nation, have 
been recompensed with distinctions, and honoured even by raagt 
nanimous foes. 

When Madame Napoleone was informed by her husband of 
the necessity of chusing her almoner and chaplain, and of at- 
tending regularly the mass, she first fell a laughing, taking it 
merely for a joke : the serious and severe looks, and the harsh 
and threatening expressions, of the First Consul, soon, however, 
convinced her how much she was mistaken. To evince her re- 
pentance, she, on th© very next day, attended her mother-in-law. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 13 

to church, who was highly edified by the sudden and religious 
turn of her daughter, and did not fail to ascribe to the effica- 
cious interference of one of her favourite saints this conversion 
of a profane sinner. But Napoleone was not the dupe of this 
church-going mummery of his wife, whom he ordered his spies 
to watch ; these were unfortunate enough to discover, that she 
went to the mass more to fulfil her appointments with her lovers 
than to pray to her Saviour ; and that even by the side of her 
mother she read billets-doux and love-letters, when that pious 
lady supposed that she read her prayers, because her eyes were 
fixed upon her breviary. Without relating to any one this dis- 
covery of his Josephine's frailties, Napoleone, after a violent 
connubial fracas and reprimand,- and after a solitary confinement 
of her for six days, gave immediate orders to have the chapels 
of the Thuileries and of St. Cloud repaired ; and, until these 
were ready. Cardinal Cambaceres and Bcrnier, by turns, said 
the mass in her private apartments, where none but selected 
favourites or favoured courtiers were admitted. Madame Napo- 
leone now never neglects the mass, but, if not accompanied by 
her husband, is escorted by a guard of honour, among whom 
she knows that he has several agents watching her motions, and 
her very looks. 

In the month of June 1803, I dined with Viscount de Segur ; 
and Joseph and Lucien Buonaparte were among the guests. 
The latter jocosely remarked with what facility the French 
christians suffered themselves to be hunted in and out of their 
temples, according to the fanaticism or policy of their rulers ; 
which he adduced as a proof of the great progress of philosophy 
and toleration in France. A young officer of the party, Jacque- 
mont, a relation of the former husband of the present Madame 
Lucien, observed, that he thought it rather an evidence of the 
indifference of the French people to all religion ; the conse- 
quence of the great havoc the tenets of infidelity and of atheism 
had made among the flocks of the faithful. This was again de- 
nied by Buonaparte's ^ide-de^camp, Savary, who observed that, 
had this been the case, the First Consul (who certainly was as 
well acquainted with the religious spirit of Frenchmen as any 
body else) would not have taken the trouble to conclude a reli- 
gious concordat, nor have been at the expense of providing for 



14 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

the clergy. To this assertion Joseph nodded assent. When 
tl)^ dinner was over, de Segur took me to a window, expressing 
his uneasiness at what he called the imprudence of Jacquemont, 
lyhp, he apprehended, from Joseph's silence and manner, would 
not escape punishment, for having indirectly blamed both the 
restorer of religion and his plenipotentiary. These apprehen- 
sions were justified : pn the next day Jjacquemont received orr 
ders to join the colonial depot at Havre ; but refusing to obey, 
by giving in his resignation as a captain, he was arrested, shut 
up in the Temple, and afterwards transported to Cayenne or 
Madaga.scar. His relatives and friends are still ignorant whether 
he is dead or alive, and what is ojf has been his place of exile. 
To a petition presented by Jacquempnt's sister, Madame de 
Veaux, Joseph answered, "that he pever interfered with the 
acts of the haute police of his brother I*J"apoleone*s government, 
being well convinced both of its justice apd moderation,'^ 



LETTER IV. 

Paris, August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THAT Buonaparte had, as far back as February 1803 (when 
the king of Prussia proposed to Louis XVIII the formal renun- 
ciation of his hereditary rights in . favour of the First Consul) 
determined to assume tlie rank and title, with the power, of a 
sovereign, nobody can doubt. Had it not been for the war with 
England, he would, in the spring of that year, or twelve months 
earlier, have proclaimed himself emperor of the French, and 
probably would have been acknowledged as such by all other 
princes. To a man so vain and so impatient, so accustomed to 
command and to intimidate, this suspension of his favourite 
plan was a considerable disappointment, and not a little increased 
his bitter and irreconcilable hatred of Great-Britain. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 15 

Here, as well as in foreign countries, the multitude pay hom- 
age only to Napoleone*s uninterrupted prosperity ; without 
penetrating or considering whether it be the consequence of 
chance or of well-digested plans ; whether he owes his suc- 
cesses to his own merit, or to a blind fortune. He asserted, 
in his speech to the constitutional authorities, immediately after 
hostilities had commenced with England, that the ivar would 
be of short duration^ and he firmly believed what he said. Had 
he by his gun-boats, or by his intrigues or threats, been enabled 
to extort a second edition of the peace of Amiens, after a war- 
fare of some few months, all mouths would have been ready to 
exclaim, Oh the illustrious warrior ! Oh the profound politician I 
Now, after three ineffectual campaigns on the coast, when the 
extravagance and ambition of our government have extended the 
contagion of war over the continent ; when both our direct of- 
fers of peace, and the negotiations and mediations of our allies 
have been declined by, or proved unavailing with, the cabinet of 
St. James, the inconsistency, the ignorance, and the littleness of 
the fortunate great man seem to be not more remembered than 
the outrages and encroachments that have provoked Austria and 
Russia to take the field. Should he continue victorious, and be 
in a position to dictate another peace of Luneville, which pro- 
bably will be followed by another pacific overture to or from 
England, mankind will again be ready to call out, ^' Oh the il- 
lustrious warrior ! Oh the profound politician ! he foresaw, in his 
wisdom, that a continental war was necessary to terrify or to sub- 
due his maritime foe ; that a peace with England could only be 
obtained in Germany ; and that this war must be excited by ex- 
tending the power of France on the other side of the Alps. 
Hence his coronation as king of Italy ; hence his incorpoi'ation 
of Parma and Genoa with France ; and hence his donation of 
Piombino and Lucca to his brother-in-law, Bacchiochi !" No 
where in history have I read of men of sense being so easily 
led astray, as in our times, by confounding fortuitous events with 
consequences resulting from preconcerted plans and well or- 
ganized designs. 

Only rogues can disseminate, and fools believe, that the dis- 
grace of Moreau, and the execution of the Duke of Enghien, 
of Pichegru, and Georges, were necessary as footsteps to Buona- 



16 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

parte's imperial throne ; and that, without the treachery of 
Meh6e de la Touche, and the conspiracy he pretended to have 
discovered, France vi^ould still have been ruled by a First Con- 
sul. It is indeed true, that this plot is to be counted (as the im- 
becility of Melas, which lost the battle of Marengo) among 
those accidents presenting themselves a-propos to serve the fa- 
vourite of fortune in his ambitious views ; but without it he 
would equally have been hailed an emperor of the French in May 
1804. When he came from the coast, in the preceding wintei^, 
and was convinced of the impossibility of making any impres- 
sion on the British islands with his flotilla, he convoked his con.- 
fidential senators, who then, with Talleyrand, settled the Senatus 
Consultum, which appeared five months afterwards. Mehee's 
correspondence with Mr. Drake was then known to hina ; but 
he and the minister of police were both unacquainted with the 
residence and arrival of Pichegru and Georges in France, and 
of their connexion with Moreau ; the particulars of which were 
first disclosed to them in the February following, when Buona- 
parte had been absent from his army of England six weeks. 
The assumption of the imperial dignity procured him another 
decent opportunity of offering his olive-branch to those who 
had caused his laurels to wither^ and by whom, notwithstanding 
his abuse, calumnies, and rhenaces, he would have been more 
proud to be saluted Emperor, than by all other nations upon the 
continent. His vanity, interest, and policy, all required this last 
degree of supremacy and elevation at that period. 

Buonaparte had so well penetrated the weak side of Moreau's 
character, that, although he could not avoid. doing justice to 
this general's military talents and exploits, he neither esteemed 
him as a citizen nor dreaded him as a rival. Moreau possessed 
great popularity ; but so did Dumourier and Pichegru before 
him : and yet neither of them had found adherents enough to 
shake those republican governments with which they avowed 
themselves openly discontented, and against which they secretly 
plotted. I heard Talleyrand say, at Madame de Montlausier's, 
in the presence of fifty persons : « Napoleone Buonaparte had 
never any thing to apprehend from General Moreau, and from 
his popularity, even at the head of an army. Dumourier too 
was at the head of an army, when he revolted against the Na- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 17 

tional Convention ; but had he not saved himself by flight, his 
own troops would have delivered him up to be punished as a 
traitor. Moreau^ and his popularity^ could only be dangerous to 
the Buonaparte dynasty^ noere he to survive J^apoleone ; had not 
this Emperor wisely averted this danger'* From this official de- 
claration of Napoleone's confidential minister, in a society of 
known anti -imperialists, I draw the conclusion, thatMoreau will 
never more, during the present reign, return to Finance. How 
very feeble, and how badly advised must this general have been, 
when, after his condemnation to two years imprisonment, he ac- 
cepted of a perpetual exile ; and renounced all hopes of ever 
again entering his own country. In the Temple, or in any other 
prison, if he had submitted to the sentence pronounced against 
him, he would have caused Buonaparte more uneasiness than 
when at liberty ; and been more a point of rally to his adherents 
and friends, than when at his palace of Grosbois ; because com- 
passion and pity must have invigorated and sharpened their feel- 
ings. 

If report be true, however, he did not voluntarily exchange 
imprisonment for exile ; racks were shown him ; and by the 
act of banishment was placed a poisonous draught. This report 
gains considerable credit, when it is remembered, that imme- 
diately after his condemnation, Moreau furnished his apartments 
in the Temple in a handsome manner, so as to be lodged well, 
if not comfortably, with his^ wife and child, whom, it is said, he 
was not permitted to see, before he had accepted of Buonaparte's 
proposal of transportation. 

It may be objected to this supposition, that the man in power, 

who did not care about the barefaced murder of the Duke of 

Enghien, and the secret destruction of Pichegru, could neither 

much hesitate, nor be very conscientious, about adding Mo- 

'reau to the number of his victims. True, but the assassin in 

authority is also generally a politician. The untimely end 

of the Duke of Enghien and of Pichegru was certainly lamented 

and deplored by the great majority of the French people; 

but though they had many who pitied their fate, but few had 

any relative interest to avenge it ; whilst in the assassination 

of Moreau, every general, every officer, and every soldier of his 

former army, might/have read the destiny reserved for himself 

D 



18 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

by that chieftain, who did not conceal his preference of those 
who had fought under him in Italy and Egypt ; and his mistrust 
and jealousy of those who had vanquished under Moreau in 
Germany ; numbers of whom had already perished at St. Do- 
mingo, or in the other colonies, or were dispersed in separate 
and distant garrisons of the mother country. It has been calcu- 
lated, that of eighty-four generals, who made, under Moreau, 
the campaign of 1 800, and who survived the peace of Luneville, 
sixteen had been killed or died at St. Domingo, four at Guada- 
loupe, ten in Cayenne, nine at Isle de France, and eleven at 
risle Reunion and in Madagascar. The mortality among the 
officers and men has been in proportion. 

An anecdote is related of Pichegru, which does honour to 
the memory of that unfortunate general. Fouche paid him a 
visit in prison the day before his death, and offered him " Buona- 
parte's commission as a field marshal, and a diploma as a grand 
officer of the Legion of Honour, ^provided he would turn in- 
former against Moreau, of whose treachery against himself, in 
1797, he was reminded. On the other hand, he was informed, 
that, in consequence of his former denials, if he persisted in 
his refractory conduct, he should never more appear before any 
judge, but that the affairs of state and the safety of the country 
required that he should be privately dispatched in his gaol." 
" So," answered this virtuous and indignant warrior, " you will 
only spare my life, upon condition that I prove myself unwor- 
thy to live. As this is the case, my choice is made without 
hesitation : I am prepared to become your victim, but I will 
never be numbered among your accomplices. Call in your exe- 
cutioners ; I am ready to die as I have lived, a man of honour, 
and an irreproachable citizen." Within twenty-four hours after 
this answer, Pichegru was no more. 

That the Duke of Enghien was shot in the night of the 2 1st of 
March 1 804, in the wood or in the ditch of the castle of Vincennes, 
is admitted even by government ; but who really were his assas- 
sins is still unknown. Some assert that he was shot by the gre- 
nadiers of Buonaparte's Italian guard ; others say, by a detach- 
ment of the gens d'armes d'Elite ; and others again, that the 
men of both these corps refused to fire ; and that General Mu- 
rat, hearing the troops murmur, and fearing their mutiny, was 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 19 

himself the executioner of this young and innocent prince of 
the House of Bourbon, by riding up to him, and blowing out 
his brains with a pistol. Certain it is, that Murat was the first, 
and Louis Buonaparte the second in command, on this dreadful 
occasion. 



LETTER V. 

Paris, August 1805. 



MY LOliD, 



THANKS to Talleyrand's fiolitkal emigration, our govern- 
ntfent has never been in ignorance of the characters and foibles of 
the leading members among the emigrants in England. Otto, 
however, finished their picture, but added some new groups to 
those delineated by his predecessor. It was according to his 
plan that the expedition of Mehee de la Touche was undertaken, 
and it was in following his instructions that the campaign of 
this traitor succeeded so well in Great Britain. 

Under the ministry of Vergennes, of Montmorin, and of 
Delessart, Mehee had been employed as a spy in Russia, Sweden, 
and Poland,^ and acquitted himself perfectly to the satisfaction of 
his masters. By some accident or other, Delessart discovered, 
however, in December 1791, that he had, while pocketing the 
money of the cabinet of Versailles, sold its secrets to the. cabinet 
of St. Petersburgh. He, of course, was no longer trusted as a 
spy, and therefore turned a Jacobin, and announced himself to 
Brissot as a persecuted patriot. All the calumnies against this 
minister in Brissot's daily paper Le Patriot Franqois^ during 
January, Februaiy, and March 1792, were the productions of 
Mehee's malicious heart and able pen. Even after they had sent 
Delessart a state prisoner to Orleans, his inveteracy continued, 
and in September the same year, he went to Versailles to enjoy 



20 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

the sight of the murder of his former master. Some go so far as 
to say, that the assassins were headed by this monster, who aggra- 
vated cruelty by insult, and informed the dying minister of the 
hands that stabbed him, and to whom be was indebted for a pre- 
mature death. 

To these and other infamous and barbarous deeds, Talleyrand 
was not a sti'anger, when he made Mehee his secret agent, and 
entrusted him with the mission to England. He took, therefore, 
such steps, that neither his confidence could be betrayed, nor his 
money squandered. Mehee had instructions how to proceed in 
Great Britain, but he was ignorant of the object government had 
in view by his mission ; and though large sums Avere promised 
if successful, and if he gave satisfaction by his zeal and discre- 
tion ; the money advanced him was a mere trifle, and barely suf- 
ficient to keep him from want. He was, therefore, really dis- 
tressed when he fixed upon some necessitous and greedy emi- 
grants for his instruments to play on the credulity of the Eng- 
lish ministers, in some of their unguarded moments. Th'eir 
generosity in forbearing to avenge upon the deluded French ex- 
iles, the slur attempted to be thrown upon their official capacity, 
and the ridicule intended to be cast on their private characters, 
has been much approved and admired here by all liberal minded 
persons ; but it, has also much disappointed Buonaparte and 
Talleyrand, who expected to see these emigi'ants driven from 
the only asylaim, which hospitality has not refused to their mis- 
fortunes and misery. 

Mehee had been promised, by Talleyrand, double the amount 
of the sums which he could swindle from your government ; 
but though he did more mischief to your counti'y than Avas 
expected in this ; and though he proved, that he had poqketed 
upwai'ds of ten thousand English guineas, the wages of his 
infamy, when he hinted about the recompense he expected here, 
Durant, Talleyrand's chief du bureaux^ advised him as a friend^ 
not to remind the minister of his presence in France, as Buon- 
aparte never pardoned a Septembrizer, and the English guineas 
he possessed might be claimed and seized, as national pro- 
perty, to compensate some of the sufferers by the unprovoked 
war with England. In vain did he address himself to his fellow- 
labourer in revolutionary plots, the counsellor of state, Real, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 21 

who had been the intermedium between him and Talleyrand, 
when he was first inlisted among the secret agents : instead of 
receiving money he heard threats ; and therefore, with as good 
grace as he could, he made the best of his disappointment ; he 
sported a carriage, kept a mistress, went to gambling houses, 
and is now in a fair way to be reduced to the statu quo before his 
brilliant exploits in Great Britain. 

Real, besides the place of a counsellor of state, occupies also 
the office of a director of the internal police. Having some 
difference with my landlord, I was summoned to appear before 
him at the prefecture of the police. My friend M. de Sab — r, 
formerly a counsellor of the parliament at Rouen, happened to 
be with me when the summons was delivered, and offered to 
accompany me, being acquainted with Real. Though thirty 
persons were waiting in the anti-chamber at our arrival, no 
sooner was my friend's name announced, than we were admitted, 
and I obtained not only more justice than I expected, or dared to 
claim, but an invitation to Madame Real's tea party the same 
evening. This justice and this politeness surprised me, until my 
friend shewed me an act of forgery, in his posse&eion, com- 
mitted by Real in 1788, when an advocate of the parliament, 
and for which the humanity of my friend alone prevented him 
from being struck of the rolls, and otherwise punished. 

As I conceived my usual societies and coteries could not 
approve my attendance at the house of such a personage, 1 was 
intent upon sending an apology to Madame Real. My friend 
however assured me, that I should meet in her saloon persons of 
all classes and of all ranks ; and many I little expected to see 
associating together. I went late, and found the assembly very 
numerous : at the upper part of the hall were seated princesses 
Joseph and Louis Buonaparte, with Madame Fouche, Madame 
Rcederer ; the ci-devant Duchess de Fleury, and Marchioness 
de Clermont. They were conversing with M. Mathew de Mont- 
morency ; the contractor (a ci-devant lacquey) CoUot ; the 
ci-devant Duke Fitzjames, and the legislator Martin, a 
ci-devant porter : several groups in the several apartments 
were composed of a similar heterogeneous mixture of ci- 
devant nobles, and ci-devant valets ; of ci-devant princesses, 
marchionesse?, countesses, and baronesses, and of ci-devant 



22 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

chamber-maids, mistresses, and poissardes. Round a gambling 
table, by the side of the ci-devant Bishop of Autun, Talleyrand, 
sat Madame Hounguenin, whose husband, a ci'devant shoeblack, 
has, by the purchase of national property, made a fortune of nine 
millions of livres ; 575,000/. Opposite them were seated the 
ci'devant Prince de Chalais, and the present Prince Cambaceres, 
with the ci-devant Countess de Beauvais, and Madame Fauve, 
the daughter of a fish-woman, and the wife of a tribune, a 
ci'devant barber. In another room the Bavarian minister Cetto 
was conferring with the spy Mehee de la Touche ; but observed 
at a distance by Fouche's secretary, Desmarets, the son of ^ 
tailor at Fontainbleau, and for years a known police spy. 
When I was just going to retire, the handsome Madame Gillot, 
and her sister Madame de Soubray, joined me. You have per- 
haps known them in England, where, before their marriage, 
they resided for five years with their parents, the Marquis and 
Marchioness de Courtin ; and were often admired by the loun- 
gers in Bond-street. The one married for money, Gillot, a 
ci-devant drummer in the French guards, but who, since the 
Revolution^ has, as a general, made a large fortune ; and the 
other united herself to a ci'devant Abb6, from love ; but both 
are now divorced from their husbands ; who passed them with- 
out any notice while they were chatting with me. I was hand- 
ing Madame Gillot to her carriage, when from the staircase, 
Madame de Soubray called to us not to quit her, as she was pur-' 
sued by a man whom she detested, and wished to avoid. We 
had hardly turned round, when Mehee offered her his arm ; and 
she exclaimed with indignation, " how dare you, infamous 
Wretch, approach me, when I have forbid you ever to speak to 
me. Had you been reduced to become a highwayman or a 
house-breaker, I might have pitied your infamy — but a spy— is 
a villain who aggravates guilt by cowardice and baseness ; and 
can inspire no noble soul with any other sentiment but abhor- 
rence, and the most sovereign contempt." Without being dis- 
concerted, Mehee silently returned to the company, amidst 
bursts of laughter from fifty servants, and as many masters^ 
waiting for their carriages. M. de Cetto was among the latter, 
but though we all fixed our eyes stedfastly upon him, no alter- 
ation could be seen upon his diplomatic countenance : his face 
must surely be made of brass, or his heart of marble. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 23 

LETTER VL 

Parisy August 1805. 

MY LORD, 

THE day on which Madame Napoleone Buonaparte was elect- 
ed an Empress of the French, by the constitutional authorities 
of her husband's empire, was, contradictory as it may seem, 
one of the most uncomfortable in her life. After the show and 
ceremony of the audience and of the drawing-room were over, 
she passed it entirely in tears, in her library, where her husband 
shut her up and confined her. 

The discipline of the Court of St. Cloud is as singular as its 
composition is unique. It is, by the regulation of Napoleone, 
entirely military. From the Empress to her lowest chamber- 
maid, from the Emperor's first aide-de-camp down to his 
youngest page, any slight oifence or negligence is punished with 
confinement, either private or public. In the former case, the 
culprits are shut up in their own apartments ; but in the latter, 
they are ordered into one of the small rooms, constructed in the 
dark galleries at the Thuileries and St. Cloud, near the kitchens ; 
where they are guarded day and night by sentries, who answer 
for their persons, and that nobody visits them. 

When, on the 98th of March 1804, the senate had deter- 
mined on offering Buonaparte the Imperial dignity, he imme- 
diately gave his wife full powers, with order to form her house- 
hold of persons who, from birth, and from their pi'inciples, 
might be worthy and could be trusted, to encompass the Imperial 
couple. She consulted Madame Remusat, who in her turn con- 
sulted her friend de Segur, who also consulted his bonne mniey 
Madame de Montbrune. This lady determined, that if Buon- 
aparte and his wife were desirous to be served, or waited on, by 
persons above them by ancestry and honour, they should pay 
liberally for such sacrifices. She was not, therefore, idle, but 
wishing to profit herself by the pride of upstart vanity, she had 
at first merely reconnoitred the ground, or made distant over- 
tures to those families of the ancient French nobility who had 



24 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

been ruined by the Revolution, and whose minds she expected 
to have found on a level with their circumstances. These, 
however, either suspecting her intent and her views, or prefer- 
ring honest poverty to degrading and disgraceful splendor, had 
started objections which she was not prepared to encounter. 
Thus the time passed away ; and when, on the 1 8th of the fol- 
lowing May, the senate proclaimed Napoleone Buonaparte Em- 
peror of the French, not a chambei'lain was ready to attend him, 
nor a maid of honour prepared to wait on his wife. 

In the morning of the 20th of May, the day fixed for the 
constitutional republican authorities to present their homage as 
subjects^ Napoleone asked his Josephine, who were the persons, 
of both sexes, she had engaged, according to his carte blanche 
given her, as necessary and as unavoidable decorations of the 
drawing-room of an Emperor and Empress, as thrones and as 
canopies of state. She referred him to Madame Remusat, who, 
though but half-dressed, was instantly ordered to appear before 
him. This lady avowed, that his grand master of the ceremo- 
nies, de Segur, had been intrusted by her with the whole ar- 
rangement, but that she feared that he had not yet been able to 
complete the full establishment of the Imperial court. The 
aide-de-camp Rapp was. then dispatched after de Segur, who as 
usual presented himself smiling and cringing. " Give me the 
list," said Napoleone, " of the ladies and gentlemen you have 
no doubt engaged for our household.'' " May it please your 
Majesty," answered de Segur, (trembling with fear) " I hum- 
bly supposed that they were not requisite, before the day 
of your Majesty's coronation." " You supposed 1" retorted Na- 
poleone, " how dare you suppose differently from our com- 
mands ? Is the Emperor of the Great Nation not to be encom- 
passed with a more numerous retinue, or with more lustre than 
a First Consul ? Do you not see the immense difference between 
the sovereign monarch of an empire, and the citizen chief ma- 
gistrate of a commonwealth ? Are there not starving nobles in 
my empii'e, enough to furnish all the courts in Europe with at- 
tendants, courtiers, and valets ? Do you not believe that with a 
nod — with a single nod, I might have them all prostrated before 
my throne ? What can then have occasioned this impertinent de- 
lay ?"— .« Sire !" answered de Segur, « it is not the want of nura- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 2S 

bers, but the difficulty of the choice among them. I will never 
recommend a single individual, upon whom I cannot depend ; or 
who, on some future day, may expose me to the greatest of all 
evils, the displeasure of my prince." — " But," continued Napo- 
leone, " what is to be done to-day, that I may augment the 
number of my suite, and by it impose upon the gaping multi- 
tude, and the attending deputations ?" — " Command," said de 
Segur, " all the officers of your Majesty's staff, and of the staff 
of the Governor of Paris, General Murat, to surround your 
Majesty's sacred person, and order them to accoutre themselves 
in the most shining and splendid manner possible. The pre- 
sence of so many military men will also, in a political point of 
view, be useful. It will lessen the pretensions of the constitut- 
ed authorities, by telling them indirectly : It is not to your Se- 
natus Consultum, to your decrees, or to your votes, that I am 
indebted for my present sovereignty : I owe it exclusively to my 
own merit and valour, and to the valour of my brave officers 
and men, to whose arms I trust more than to your counsels." 

This advice obtained Napoleone's entire approbation, and was 
followed. De Segur was permitted to retire, but when Madame 
Remusat made a curtesy also to leave the room, she was stopped 
with his terrible, aux arrets ! and left under the care and re- 
sponsibility of his aide-de-camp I^e Brun, who saw her safe 
into her room, at the door of which he placed two grenadiers. 
Napoleone then went out, ordering his wife, at her peril, to be 
in time ready and brilliantly dressed, for the drawirig-room. 

Dreading the consequences of her husband's wrath, Madame 
Napoleone was not only punctual, but so elegantly and tastefully 
decorated with jewels and ornaments, that even those of her ene- 
mies or rivals who refused her beauty, honour, and virtue, allow- 
ed her taste and dignity. She thought that even in the regards 
of Napoleone, she read a tacit approbation. When all the 
troublesome bustie of the morning was gone through, and when! 
senators, legislators, tribunes, and prefects, had complimented her 
as a model of female perfection, on a signal from her husband, 
she accompanied him in silence, through six different apart* 
ments, before he came to her library, where he surlily ordered 
her to enter, and to remain until further orders. " What have I 

E 



26 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

done, Sire ! to deserve such treatment ?" exclaimed she trem- 
bling.—." If," answered Napoleone, " Madame Remusat, your 
favourite, has made a fool of you, this is only to teach you, that 
you shall not make a fool of me. Had not de Segur, fortunately 
for him, had the ingenuity to extricate us from the dilemma into 
which my confidence and dependence on you had brought me, I 
should have made a fine figure, indeed, on the first day of my 
Emperorship.— Have patience, Madame, you have plenty of books 
to divert yp,u, but you must remain vi^here you are, until I am in- 
clined to release you." So saying, Napoleone locked the door, 
and put the key in his pocket. 

It was near two o'clock in the afternoon when she was thus 
shut up. Remembering the recent flattery of her courtiers, and 
comparing it with the unfeeling treatment of her husband, she 
found herself so much the more unfortunate, as the expressions 
of the former were regarded by her as praise due to her merit, 
while the unkindness of the latter was unavailingly. resented as 
the undeserved oppression of a capricious despot. 

Business, or perhaps malice, made Napoleone forget to send 
her any dinner ; and when, at eight o'clock, his brothers and 
sisters came according to invitation to take tea, he said coldly, 
" A-propos, I forgot it, my wife has not dined yet ; she is busy, 
I suppose, in her philosoplxical meditations in her study." Ma- 
dame Louis Buonaparte, her daughter, flew directly towards the 
study, and her mother could scarcely, for her tears, inform her 
that she was a prisoner, and that her husband was her gaoler. 
" Oh, Sire !" said Madame Louis, returning, " even this remark- 
able day is a day of mourning for my poor mother !" — " She de- 
serves worse," answered Napoleone, " but, for your sake, she 
shall be released ; here is the key, let her out." 

Madame Napoleone was, however, not in a situation to wish 
to appear before her envious brothers and sisters-in-law. Her 
eyes were so swollen with crying, that she could hardly see ; and 
her tears had stained those imperial robes, which the unthinking 
and inconsiderate, no doubt, believed a certain preservative against 
sorrow and affliction. At nine o'clock, however, another aide-de- 
camp of her husband presented himself, and gave her the choice, 
either to accompany him back to the study, or to join the family 
party of the Buonapartes. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 27 

In deploring her mother's situation, Madame Louis Buona- 
pai'te informed her former governess, Madame Cam — n, of 
these particulars, which I heard her relate at Madame de M — r's, 
almost verbatim as I report them to you. Such, and other scenes 
nearly of the same description, are neither rare nor singular, in 
the most singular court that ever existed in civilized Europe. 



LETTER VIL 

Paris f August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THOUGH government suffer a religious, or rather anti-religi- 
ous liberty of the press, the authors who libel or ridicule the 
Christian, particularly the Roman Catholic religion, are excluded 
from all prospect of advancement, or, if in place, are not trusted 
or liked. Cardinal Caprara, the nuncio of the Pope, proposed last 
year, in a long memorial, the same severe restrictions on the dis- 
cussions or publications in religious matters, as were already or- 
dered in those concerning politics. But both Buonaparte, and his 
minister in the affairs of the church, Portalis, refused the intro- 
duction of what they called a tyranny on the conscience. Capra- 
ra then addressed himself to the ex-bishop Talleyrand, who on this 
occasion was more explicit than he generally is. " Buonaparte," 
said he, " rules not only over a fickle but a gossiping (bavard) 
people, whom he has prudently forbidden all conversation and 
writing concerning government, or affairs of state. They would 
soon (accustomed as they are, since the Revolution, to verbal and 
written debates), be tired of talking about fine weather or about 
the opera. To occupy them and their attention, some ample 
subject of diversion was necessary, and religion was surrendered 
to them at discretion ; because, enlightened as the world now is, 
even atheists, or Christian fanatics, can do but little harm to 
society. They may spend rivers of ink, but they will be unable 



28 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

to shed a drbp of blood,"— " True," answered the Cardinal, " but 
only to a certain degree. The licentiousness of the press, with re- 
gard to religious matters, does it not also furnish infidelity with 
new arms to injure the faith ? and have not the horrors from which 
France has just escaped proved the danger and evil consequences 
of irreligion; and the necessity of encouraging and protecting 
Christianity? By the recal of the clergy, and by the religious 
concordat, Buonaparte has shown himself convinced of this truth." 
" So he is," interrupted Talleyrand, " but he abhors intoleration 
and persecution" (not in politics). " I shall however, to please 
your Eminence, lay the particulars of your conversation before 
him." 

Sometime afterwards, when Talleyrand and Buonaparte must 
have agreed about some new measure, to indirectly chastise im- 
pious Writers, the senators Garat, Jaucourt, Roederer, and De- 
meuniex', four of the members of the senatorial commission of the 
liberty of the press, were sent for, and remained closeted with 
Napoleone, his minister Portalis, and Cardinal Caprara, for two 
hours. What was determined on this occasion has not transpir- 
ed, as even the Cardinal, who is not the most discreet person 
when provoked, and his religious zeal gets the better of his politi- 
cal prudence, has remained silent, though seemingly contented. 

Two rather insignificant authors, of the name of Varennes and 
Beaujou, who published some scandalous libels on Christianity, 
have since been taken up, and after some months' imprisonment 
in the Temple, been condemned to transportation to Cayenne for 
life; not as infidels or atheists, but as conspirators against the 
state, in consequence of some unguarded expressions, which pre- 
judice or ill-will alone would judge connected with politics. No- 
thing is now permitted to be printed against religion, but with 
the author's name ; but by affixing his name, he may abuse the 
■worship and gospel as much as he pleases. Since the example of 
severity alluded to above, however, this practice is on the decline. 
Even Pigault Le Brun, a popular but immoral novel writer, nar- 
rowly escaped lately a trip to Cayenne, for one of his blasphemous 
publications ; and owes to the protection of Madame Murat, exclu- 
d.vely, that he was not sent to keep Varennes and Beaujou com- 
pany. Some years ago, when Madame Murat was neither so 
great nor so rich as at present, he presented her with a copy of 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 29' 

his works, and she has been unfashionable enough not only to re- 
member the compliment, but wished to return it, by nominating' 
him her private secretary ; which, however, the -veto of Napoleone 
prevented. 

Of Napoleone Buonaparte's religious sentiments, opinions are 
not divided in France. The influence over him, of the petty 
superstitious Cardinal Caprara, is therefore inexplicable. This 
prelate has forced from him assent to transactions which had been 
refused both to his mother and his brother Joseph, who now often 
employ the Cardinal with success, where they either dare riot nor 
will not show themselves. It is true, his Eminence is not easily 
rebuked, but returns to the charge unabashed by new repulses : 
and he obtains by teasing more than by persuasion; but a man by 
whom Buonaparte suffers himself to be teased with impunity is 
no insignificant favourite, particularly when, like this Cardinal, 
he unites cunning with devotion, craft with superstition ; and is as 
accessible to corruption as tormented by ambition. 

As most ecclesiastical promotions passed through his pure and 
disinterested hands, Madame Napoleone, Talleyrand, and Porta- 
lis, who also wanted some douceurs for their extraordinary ex- 
penses, united together last spring to remove him from France, and 
Napoleone was cajoled to nominate him a grand almoner of the 
kingdom of Italy; and the Cardinal set out for Milan. He was, 
however, artful enough to convince his Sovereign of the propriety 
of having his grand almoner by his side; and he is therefore ob- 
liged to this intrigue of his enemies, that he now disposes of the 
benefices in the kingdom of Italy, as well as those of the French 
empire. 

During the Pope's residence in this capital his Holiness often 
made use of Cardinal Caprara in his secret negotiations with 
Buonaparte ; and whatever advantages were obtained by the Ro- 
man Pontiff for the Galilean church, his Eminence almost extort- 
ed ; for he never desisted, where his interest or pride were con- 
cerned, till he had succeeded. It is said that one day last January, 
after having been for hours exceedingly teasing and troublesome, 
Buonaparte lost his patience, and was going to treat his Eminence 
as he frequently does his relatives, his ministers and counsellors, 
that is to say, to kick him from his presence ; but suddenly recol- 
lecting himself, he said, " Cardinal, remain here in my closet 



30 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

until my return, when I shall have more time to listen to what 
you have to relate." It was at ten o'clock in the morning, and a 
day of great military audience and grand review. In going out 
he put the key in his pocket, and told the guards in his anti- 
chamber to pay no attention, if they should hear any noise in his 
closet. ' 

It was dark before the review was over, and Buonaparte had a 
large party to dinner. When his guests retired, he went into his 
wife's drawing-room, where one of the Pope's chamberlains 
waited on him, with the information, that his Holiness was much 
alarmed about the safety of Cardinal Caprara, of whom no account 
could be obtained, even by the assistance of the police, to which 
application had been made, since his Eminence had so suddenly 
disappeared. " Oh! how absent I am!" answered Napokone, as 
Avith surprise ; " I entirely forgot that I left the cardinal in my 
closet this morning : I will go myself and make an apology for 
my -blunder." His Eminence, quite exhausted, was found fast 
asleep ; but no sooner was he a little recovered, than he inter- 
rupted Buonaparte's affected apology with the repetition of the 
demand he had made in the morning ; and so well was Napoleone 
pleased with him, for neglecting his personal inconvenience, 
only to occupy himself with the affairs of his Sovereign, that he 
consented to what was asked, and in laying his hand upon the 
shoulders of the prelate, said: " Faithful minister! were every 
pi-ince so well served as your Sovereign is by you, many evils 
might be prevented, and much good effected." The same evening 
Duroc brought him as a present, a snuff-box with Buonaparte's 
portrait, set round with diamonds, worth one thousand Louis d'ors. 
The adventures of this day certainly did not lessen his Eminence 
in the favour of Napoleone or of Pius VII. 

Last November, some not entirely unknown persons intended 
to amuse themselves at the Cardinal's expense. At seven o'clock 
one evening, a young Abbe presented himself at the Cardinal's 
house, hotel de Montmorin, rue Plumet, as by appointment of his 
Eminence; and was by his secretary ushei-ed into the study, and 
asked to wait there. Hardly half an hour afterwards, two persons, 
pretending to be agents of the police, arrived just as the Cardinal's 
carriage had stopped. They informed him, that the woman intro- 
-duced into his house in the dress of an Abbe was connected with 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 31 

a gang of thieves and house-breakers, and demanded his permis- 
sion to arrest her. He protested that, except the wife of his 
porter, no woman in any dress whatever could be in his house, 
and that, to convince themselves, they were very welcome to 
accompany his valet-de-chambre into every room they wished to 
see. To the great surprise of his servant, a" very pretty girl was 
found in the bed of his Eminence's bed-chamber, which joined his 
study ; who, though the pretended police agents insisted on her 
getting up, refused, under pretence that she Was there waiting for 
her bon amie, the Cardinal. His Eminence was no sooner told of 
this, than he shut the gate of his house, after sending his secre- 
tary to the commissary of police of the section. In the meantime, 
both the police agents and the girl entreated him to let them out, 
as the whole was merely a badinage; but he remained inflexible, 
and they were all three carried by the real police commissary to 
prison. Upon a complaint made by his Eminence to Buonaparte, 
the police minister, Fouche, received orders to have those who 
had dared thus to violate the sacred character of the representative 
of the holy PontiflP, immediately and without farther ceremony 
transported to Cayenne. The Cardinal demanded, and obtained 
a proces verbal of what had occurred, and of the sentence on the 
culprits, to be laid before his Sovereign. As Eugenius de Beau- 
harnois interested himself so much for the individuals involved iii 
this affair, as both to implore Buonajjarte's pardon and the Car- 
dinal's interference for them, many were inclined to believe that 
he was in the secret, if not the contriver of this unfortunate joke. 
This supposition gained credit, when, after all his endeavours to 
save them proved vain, he sent them seventy-two thousand livres, 
30001. to Rochfort, that they might on their arrival at Cayenne be 
able to buy a plantation. He procured them also letters of recom- 
mendation to the governor, Victor Hughes, to be treated diffe- 
rently from other transported persons. 



32 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 



LETTER Vni. 

Paris, August \Q05. 



MY LORD, 



I WAS particularly attentive in observing the countenances and 
demeanour of the company, at the last levee which Madame Na- 
poleone Buonaparte held, previous to her departure with her hus- 
band, to meet the Pope at Fontainebleau. I had heard from good 
authority, " that to those whose propensities were known, Duroc's 
information, that the Empress was visible, was accompanied with 
a kind of admonitory or courtly hint, that the strictest decency in 
dress and manners, and a conversation chaste, and rather of an 
unusually modest turn, would be highly agreeable to their Sove- 
reigns ; in consideration of the solemn occasion of a Sovereign 
Pontiff's arrival in France ; an occurrence that had not happened 
for centuries, and probable would not happen for centuries to 
come." I went early, and was well rewarded for my punctuality. 

There came the senator Fouche, handing his amiable and chaste 
spouse, walking with as much gravity as formerly, when a friar, 
he marched in a procession. Then presented themselves the se- 
nators Sieyes and Roederer, with an air as composed, as if the 
former had still been an Abbe, and the confessor of the latter. 
Next came Madame Murat, whom three hours before I had seen 
in the Bois de Boulogne, in all the digusting display of fashionable 
nakedness, now clothed and covered to her chin. She was follow- 
ed by the pious Madame Le Clerc, now Princess Borghese, who 
was sighing deeply and loudly. After her came limping the godly 
Talleyrand, dragging his fiure moiety by his side, both with 
downcast and edifying looks ; the Christian patriots Gravina and 
Lima; Dreyer and Beust, Dalberg and Cetto, Malsburgh and 
Pappenheim, with the Catholic Schimmelpenninck, and Mohamed- 
Sayd-Halel-Effendy, all presented themselves as penitent sinners 
imploring absolutions, after undergoing mortifications. 

But it would become tedious, and merely a repetition, were I to 
depict separately the figures and characters of all the personages 
at this politico-comical masquerade. Their conversation was hovr- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 33 

ever more uniform, more contemptible, and more laughable, than 
their accoutrements and grimaces were ridiculous. To judge 
from what they said, they belonged no longer to this world ; all 
their thoughts were in heaven, and they considered themselves 
either on the borders of eternity or on the eve of the day of the 
last judgment. The truly devout Madame Napoleone spoke with 
rapture of martyrs and miracles, of the mass and of the vespers, of 
agnuses and relics of Christ her Saviour, and of Pius VII, his 
vicar: had not her enthusiasm been interrupted by the enthu- 
siastic commentaries of her mother-in-law, I saw every mouth 
open, ready to cry out as soon as she had finished. Amen ! Amen I 
Amen! 

Napoleone had placed himself between the old Cardinal de Bel- 
lois and the not young Cardinal Bernier, so as to prevent the ap- 
proach of any profane sinner, or unrepentant infidel. Round him 
and their clerical chiefs, all the curates and grand vicafs, almoners 
and chaplains of the court, and the capitals of the.Princess, Prin- 
cesses, and grand officers of state, had formed a kind of cordon. 
" Had," said the young General Kellerman to me, " Buonaparte 
always been encompassed by troops of this description, he might 
now have sung hymns as a saint in heaven, but he would never 
have reigned as an Emperor upon earth." This indiscreet remark 
was heard by Louis Buonaparte, and on the next morning Keller- 
man received orders to join the army in Hanover, where he was 
put under the command of a general younger than himself. He 
would have been still more severely punished, had not his father 
the senator, General Kellerman, been in such great favour at the 
court of St. Cloud, and so much firotected by Duroc, who had 
made in 1792, his first campaign under this officer, then com- 
mander in chief of the army opf the Ardennes. 

When this devout assembly separated, which was by courtesy 
an hour earlier than usual, 1 expected every moment to hear a 
chorus of horse-laughs, because I clearly perceived that all of 
them were tired of their assumed parts ; and with me inclined to 
be gay at the expense of their neighbours. But they all remem- 
bered also that they were watched by spies, and that an imprudent 
look or an indiscreet word, gaiety instead of gravity, noise when 
silence was commanded, might be followed by an airing in the 
wilderness of Cayenne. They therefore all called out, " Coach- 

F 



34 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

man, to our hotel 1" us much as to say, we will to-day, in compli- 
ment to the new born Christian zeal of our Sovereigns, finish our 
evening as piously as we have begun it. But no sooner were they 
out of sight of the palace than they hurried to scenes of dissi- 
pation ; all endeavouring, in the debauchery and excesses so natu- 
ral to them, to forget their unnatural affectation and hypocrisy. 

Well you know the standard of the faith even of the members 
of the Buonaparte family. Two days before this Christian circle 
at Madame Napoleone's, Madame de Chateaureine, with three 
other ladies, visitcjd the Princess Borghese. Not seeing a fa- 
vourite parrot they had often previously admired, they inquired 
what was become of it. " Oh, the poor creature !" answered the 
Princess, "I haA^e disposed of it as well as of two of my monkeys. 
The Emperor has obliged me to engage an almoner and two chap- 
lains, and it would be too extravagant in me to keep six useless 
aniiTials in ray hotel : I must now submit to hearing the disgusting 
howlings of my almoner, instead of the entertaining chat of my 
parrot ; and to see the awkward bows and kneelings of my chap- 
lains, instead of the amusing capering of my monkeys. Add to 
this, that I am forced to transform into a chapel my elegant and 
tasty boudoir.) on the ground floor, where I have passed so many* 
fortunate moments, so many delicious tete-a-tetes. Alas ! what a 
change ! — what a shocking fashion, that we are now all again to be 
Christians ! ! 1" 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 35 

LETTER IX. 

Paris, August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



NOTWITHSTANDING what was inserted in our public 
prints to the contrary, the reception Buonaparte experienced from 
his army of England in June last year, the first time he presented 
himself to them as an Emperor, was far from such as flattered 
either his vanity or views. For the first days, some few solitary 
voices alone accompanied the Vive V Emjiereur ! of his generals, 
and of his aides-de-camp. This indifference, or, as he called it, 
mutinous spirit, was so much the more provoking, as it was vin- 
expected. He did Dot, as usual, ascribe it to the emissaries or 
gold of England, but to the secret adherents of Pichegru and Mo- 
reau, amongst the brigades or divisions that had served under 
these unfortunate generals. He ordered,-in consequence, his mi- 
nister Berthier to make out a list of all these corps : .having ob- 
tained this, he separated them, by ordering some to Italy, others to 
Holland, and the rest to the frontiers of Spain or Germany. This 
act of revenge or jealousy was regarded both by the officers and 
men as a disgrace, and as a doubt thrown out against their fidelity ; 
and the murmur was loud and general. In consequence of this, 
some men were shot, and many more arrested. Observing, how- 
ever, that severity had not the desired effect, Buonaparte suddenly 
changed his conduct ; released the imprisoned, and rewarded with 
the crosses of his Legion of Honour every member of the so lately 
Suspected troops, who had ever performed any brilliant or valorous 
exploits under the prosci-ibed generals. He even incorporated 
among his own body-guards and guides, men v/ho had served in 
the same capacity under these rival commanders; and numbers 
of their children were received in the Prytanees and military free 
schools. The enthusiastic exclamation that soon greeted his ears 
convinced him that he had struck upon the right string of his sol- 
diers' heart. Men, who some few days before, wanted only the 
signal of a leader to cut an Emperor they hated to pieces, would 



30 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

now have contended, who should be foremost to shed their last 
drop of blood for a chief they adored. 

This affected liberality towards the troops, who had served un- 
der his rivals, roused some slight discontent among those to 
whom he was chiefly indebted for his own laurels. But if he 
knew the danger of reducing to despair slighted men with arms 
in their hands, he also was well aware of the equal danger of endur- 
ing licentiousness or audacity, among troops who had, on all 
occasions, experienced his preference and partiality ; and he gave 
a sanguinary proof of his opinion on this subject, at the grand pa- 
rade of the 12th July 1804, preparatory to the grand fete of the 
14th. A grenadier of the 21st regiment (which was known in 
Italy under the name of the Terrible), in presenting arms to him, 
said: "Sire! I have served under you four campaigns, fought 
under you in ten battles or engagements ; have received in your 
service seven wounds, and am not a member of your Legion 
of Honour; whilst many, who served under Moreau, and are not 
able to shew a scratch from an enemy, have that distinction." 
Buonaparte instantly ordered this man to be shot by his own com- 
rades, in the front of the regiment. The six grenadiers selected 
to fire seeming to hesitate, he commanded the whole corps to lay 
down their arms ; and, after being disbanded, to be sent to the dif- 
ferent colonial depots. To humiliate them still more, the muti- 
nous granadier was shot by the gens-d'armes. When the review 
was over, Vive VEmfiereur! resounded from all parts, and his 
popularity among the troops has since rather increased than di- 
minished. Nobody can deny that Buonaparte possesses a great 
presence of mind, an undaunted firmness, and a perfect knowledge 
of the character of the people over whom he reigns. Could but 
justice and hum£\nity be added to his other qualities! — ^but unfor- 
tunately for my natioJV^-fear that the answer of General Mortier 
tp a remark of a friend of mine on this subject, is not problemati- 
cal : " Had," said this imperial favourite, " Napoleone Buonaparte 
been just and humane, he would neither have vanquished nor 
reigned." 

All these scenes occurred before Buonaparte, seated on a 
throne received the homage, as a Sovereign, of one hundred and 
fifty thousand warriors, who now bowed as subjects, after having 
for years fought for liberty and equality, and sworn hatred to all 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 37 

monarchical institutions ; and who hitherto had saluted and obeyed 
him only as the first among equals. What an inconsistency ! — 
The splendor and show that accompanied him every where, the 
pageantry and courtly pomp that surrounded him, and the deco- 
rations of the stars and ribands of the Legion of Honour, which 
he distributed with bombastic 'speeches among troops, to whom 
those political impositions and social cajoleries were novelties, 
made such an impression upon them, that had a bridge been then 
fixed between Calais and Dover, brave as your countrymen are, I 
should have trembled for the liberty and independence of your 
country. The heads and imaginations of the soldiers, I know from 
the best authority, were then so exalted, that though they might 
have been cut to pieces, they could never have been defeated or 
routed. — I pity our children, when I reflect, that their tranquillity 
and happiness will perhaps depend upon such a corrupt and un- 
principled people of soldiers ; easy tools in the hands of every im- 
postor or mountebank. 

The lively satisfaction which Buonaparte must have felt at 
the pinnacle of grandeur, where fortune had placed him, was not, 
however, entirely unmixed with uneasiness and vexation. Ex- 
cept at Berlin, in all the other great courts, the Emperor of the 
French was still Monsieur Buonaparte ; and your country, of the 
subjugation of which he had spoken with such lightness and such 
inconsideration, instead of dreading, despised his boasts and defied 
his threats. Indeed, never before did the Cabinet of St. James 
more opportunely expose the reality of his impotency, the imper- 
tinence of his menaces, and the folly of his parade, for the invasion 
of your country, than by declaring all the ports, containing his in- 
vincible armada, in a state of blockade. I have heard from an 
ofiicer who witnessed his fury, when, in May 1799, he was com- 
pelled to retreat from before St. Jean d'Acre, and who was by his 
side in the camp at Boulogne, when a dispatch informed him of 
this circumstance, that it was nothing, compared to the violent 
rage into which he flew upon reading it. For an hour afterwards, 
not even his brother Joseph dared approach him ; and lais passion 
got so far the better of his policy, that what might still have long 
been concealed from the troops was knpwn within the evening to 
the whole camp. He dictated to his secretary orders for his mi- 
nisters at "Vienna, Berlin, Lisbon, and Madrid, and couriers were 



38 SECIIET HISTORY OF'THE 

sent away with them ; but half an hour afterwards other couriers 
were dispatched after, them, with other orders ; which were re- 
voked in their turn, when at last Joseph had succeeded in calm- 
ing him a little. He passed, however, the whole following night 
full dressed and agitated ; lying down only for an instant, but hav- 
ing always in his room Joseph and Duroc, and deliberating on a 
thovisand methods of desti'oying the insolent islanders ; all 
equally violent, but all equally impracticable. 

The next morning, when, as usual, he went to see the ma- 
nosuvres of his flotilla, and the embarkation and landing of his 
troops, he looked so pale, that he almost excited pity. Your 
cruizers, however, as if they had been informed of the situation 
of our hero, approached unusually near, to evince, as it were, 
their contempt and derision. He ordered instantly ali the batte- 
ries to fire, and went himself to that which carried its shot 
farthest ; but that moment six of your vessels, after taking in 
their sails, cast anchor, with the greatest sang froid, just with- 
out the reach of our shot. In unavailing anger he broke up- 
on the spot six ofEcers of artillery, and pushed one Captain 
d'Ablincourt down the precipice, vmder the battery, where he 
narrowly escaped breaking his neck as well as his legs ; for 
which injury he was -compensated by being made an officer of 
the Legion of Honour. Buonaparte then convoked upon the 
spot a council of his generals of artillery and of the engineers, 
and, within an hour's time, some guns and mortars, of still 
heavier metal and greater calibre, were carried up to replace 
the others ; but, fortunately for the generals, before a trial could 
be inade of them, the tide changed, and your cruizers sailed. 

In returning to breakfast, at General Soult's, he observed the 
countenances of his soldiers rather inclined to laughter than to 
wrath ; and he heard some jests, significant enough in the voca- 
bulary of encampments, and which informed him that contempt 
was not the sentiment with which your navy had inspired his 
troops. The occurrences of these two days hastened his de- 
parture from the coast for Aix la Chapelle, where the cringing 
of his courtiers consoled him, in part, for the want of respect or 
gallantry in your English tars. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. S9 

LETTER X. 

Paris, August 1805. 

MY LORD, 

ACCORDING to a general belief in our diplomatic circles, 
it was the Austrian ambassador in France, Count Cobentzel, who 
principally influenced the determination of Francis II to assume 
the hereditary title of Emperor of Austria, and to acknowledge 
Napoleone Emperor of the French. 

Jean Philippe Count de Cobentzel enjoys, not only in his owii 
country, but through all Europe, a great reputation as a statesman, 
and has for a number of years been employed by his court in the 
most intricate and delicate political transactions. In 1790 he was 
sent to Brabant to treat with the Belgian insurgents, but the 
States of Brabant refusing to receive him, he retired to Lux- 
emburg, where he published a proclamation, in which Leopold 
II revoked all those edicts of his predecessor Joseph II, v/hich 
had been the principal cause of the troubles ; and re-established 
every thing upon the same footing as during the reign of Maria 
Theresa. In 1791, he was appointed ambassador to the court of 
St. Petersburgh, where his conduct obtained the approbation of 
his own Prince, and of the Empress of Russia. 

In 1793, the Committee of Public Safety nominated the intri- 
guer, De Semonville, ambassador to the Ottoman Porte. His 
mission was to excite tlie Turks against Austria and Russia, and 
it became of great consequence to the two Imperial courts, to 
seize this incendiary of regicides. He was therefore stopped, on 
the 25th of July, in the village of Novate, near the lake of Chia- 
venne. A rumour was very prevalent at this time that some 
papers wei'e found in De Semonville's port-folio implicating 
Count de Cobentzel as a correspondent with the "revolutionary 
French generals. The continued confidence of his sovereign 
contradicts, however, this inculpation, which seems to have been 
merely the invention of rivalry or jealousy. 

In October 1795, Count de Cobentzel signed, in name of the 
Emperor, a treaty with England and Russia ; and in 1797 he was 



40 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

one of the Imperial plenipotentiaries sent to Udine to negociate 
■with Buonaparte, with whom, on the 1 7th of October, he signed 
the treaty of Campo Formio. In the same capacity, he went 
afterwards to Radstadt, and when this congress broke up, he re- 
turned again as an ambassador to St. Petersburgh. 

After the peace of Luneville, when it required to have a man 
of experience and talents, to oppose to our so deefily able mi- 
nister, Talleyrand, the Cabinet of Vienna removed him from 
Russia to France, where, with all other representatives of 
princes, he has experienced more of the frowns and rebukes, 
than of the dignity and good grace, of our present Sovereign. 

Count de Cobentzel's foible is said to be a passion for women ; 
and it is reported that our worthy minister Talleyrand has 
been kind enough to assist him frequently in his amours. 
Some adventures of this sort, which occurred at Radstadt, af- 
forded much amusement at the Count's expense. Talleyrand, 
from envy, no doubt, does not allow him the same political merit 
as his other political contemporaries, having frequently repeated, 
" that the official dinners o£ Count de Cobentzel were greatly 
preferable to his official notes." 

So well pleased was Buonaparte with this ambassador, when 
at Aix la Chapelle last year, that, as a singular favour, he per- 
mitted him, with the Marquis de Gallo (the Neapolitan minister, 
and another plenipotentiary at Udine) to visit the camps of his 
army of England on the coast. It is true that this conde- 
scension was perhaps as nmch a boast, or a threat, as a com- 
pliment. 

The famous diplomatic note of Talleyrand, which, at Aix la 
Chapelle, proscribed en masse all your diplomatic agents, was 
only a slight revenge of Buonaparte's for your mandate of block- 
ade. Rumour states, that this measure was not approved of by 
Talleyrand, as it would not exclude any of your ambassadors 
from those courts not immediately under the whip of our Napo- 
leone. For fear, however, of some more extravagant deter- 
mination, Joseph Buonaparte dissuaded him from laying before 
his brother any objections or representations ; " But what absur- 
dities do I not sign !" exclaimed the pliant minister. 

Buonaparte, on his arrival at Aix la Chapelle, found there, 
according to command, most of the members of the foreign 



COtTRt OF ST. CLOUD. 41 

Uiplomatic corps in France, waiting to present their new creden- 
tials to him as Emperor. Charlemagne had been saluted as 
such in tlie same place, eight hundred years before ; an induce- 
ment for the modern Charlemagne, to set all these ambassadors 
travelling some hundred miles, without any other object, but to 
gratify his impertinent vanity. Every spot where Chai'lemagne 
had walked, sat, slept, talked, eaten or prayed, was visited by him 
with great ostentation ; always dragging behind him the foreign 
repi'esentatives, and by his side his wife. To a peasant who pre- 
sented him a stone, upon which Charlemagne was said to have 
once kneeled, he gave nearly half its weight in gold ; on a priest 
who offered him a small crucifix, before which that Prince was 
reported to have prayed, he bestowed an episcopal see ; to a ma- 
nufacturer he ordered one thousand Louis, for a portrait of 
Charlemagne, said to be drawn by his daughter, but wnich, in 
fact, was from the pencil of the daughter of the manufacturer ; 
a German savant was made a member of the National Institute, 
for an old diploma, supposed to have been signed by Charlemagne, 
who many believe was not able to write ; and a German Baron 
Krigge, was registered in the Legion of Honour,, for a ring pre- 
sented by this Emperor to one of his ancestors, though his no- 
bility is well known not to be of sixty years standing. But wo 
to him who dated to suggest any doubt about what Napoleone be- 
lieved, or seemed to believe ! A German professor Richter, more 
^ pedant than a courtier, and more sincere than wise, addressed 
a short memorial to Buonaparte, in which he proved, from his in=- 
timacy with antiquity, that most of the pretended relics of 
Charlemagne were impositions on the credulous ; that the por- 
trait was a drawing of this century ; the diploma written in the 
last ; the crucifix manufactured within fifty, and the ring, per- 
haps, within ten years. The night after Buonaparte had perused 
this memorial, a police commissary, accompanied by four gens- 
d'armes, entered the professor's bed-room, forced him to dress, 
and ushered him into a covered cart, which carried him under es- 
cort to the left bank of the Rhine ; where he was left with or- 
ders, under pain of death, never more to enter the territoi-y of 
the French empire. This expedition and summary justice si- 
lenced all other connoisseurs and antiquarians ; and relics of 
Charlemagne have since poured in, in such numbers, from all 

G 



4/2 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

parts of France, Italy, Germany, and even Denmark, that wc 
are here in hope to see one day established a museum Charle- 
magne, by the side of the museums Napoleone and Josephine. 
A ballad written in monkish Latin, said to be sung by the 
daughters and maids of Charlemagne, at his court on great fes- 
tivities, was addressed to Duroc, by a Danish professor Craneneri 
Who in return was presented, on the part of Buonaparte, with a 
diamond ring, worth twelve thousand livres ; 5001. This ballad 
may, perhaps, be the foundation of a future Btbliothequc or 
XyceM7K— .Charlemagne. 



LETTER XI. 

FariSfJugust 1805. 



M\ Loafij 



ON the aiTival of hef husband at Aix la Chapelle, Madame 
Napoleone had lost her money by gambling, without recovering 
her health by using the baths and drinking the waters ; she was 
therefore as poor as low-spirited, and as ill-tempered as dis- 
satisfied. Napoleone himself was neither much in humour to 
supply her present wants, provide for her extravagancies, or to 
forgive her ill-nature ; he ascribed the inefEcacy of the waters to 
her excesses ; and reproached her for too great condescension to 
many persons, who presented themselves at her drawing-room, 
and in her circle, but who, from their rank in life, were only fit 
to be seen as supplicants in her anti-chambers, and as associates 
with her valets or chambermaids. 

The fact was, that Madame Napoleone knew as. well as hef 
husband, that these gentry were not in their place, in the com- 
pany of an Empress ; but they were her creditors, some of them 
even Jews ; and as long as she continued debtor to them, she 
could not decently, or rather she dared not, prevent them from 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 43 

being visitors to her. By confiding her situation to her old friend, 
Talleyrand, she was, however, soon released from those trouble* 
some personages. When the minister was informed of the oc* 
casion of the attendance of these impertinent intruders, he hum» 
bly proposed to Buonaparte, not to pay their demands and their 
due ; but to majte them examples of severe justice, in transport^ 
ing them to Cayenne, as the only sure means to prevent, for the 
future, people of the same description, from being familiar or 
audacious. 

When, thanks to Talleyrand's interference, these family ar- 
rangements were settled, Madame Napoleone recovered her 
health with her good humour ; and her husband, who had began 
to forget the English blockade, only to think of the papal accolade 
(dubbing) was more tender than ever. I am assured, that dur- 
ing the fortnight he continued with his wife at Aix la Chapelle, 
he only shut her up or confined her twice, kicked her thi'ee time^ 
and abused her once a day. 

It was during their residence in that capital, that Count de 
Segur, at last, completed the composition of their household ; 
and laid before them the list of the ladies and genliemen, who 
had consented to put on their livery. This de Segur is a kind of 
amphibious animal, neither a royalist nor a republican ; neitlier a 
democrat nor an aristocrat ; but a disaffected subject under a 
king ; a dangerous citizen of a com^ionwealth ; ridiculing both 
the friend of equality and the defender of prerogatives ; no exact 
definition can be given from his past conduct and avowed profeS' 
sions, of his real, moral, and political character. One thing is 
only cei*tain-™-he was an ungrateful traitor to Louis XVI, and 
is a submissive slave under Napoleone the First, 

Though not of an ancient family. Count de Segur was a noble- 
man by birth, and ranked among the ancient French nobility, 
because one of his ancestors had been a field-mareschal. Being 
early introduced at court, he acquired, with the common corrup- 
tion, also the pleasing manners of a courtier ; and by his assidui- 
ties about the ministers, Counts de Maurepas and de Vergennes, 
he procured from the latter the place of an ambassador to the 
Court of St. Petersburg. With some reading and genius, but 
with more boasting and presumption, he classed himself among 
Fjfench men of letters, and was therefore *3 such received wiJh 



44 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

distinction by Catharine II, on whom, and on whose government, 
he in return published a libel. He was a valet under La Fayette, 
in 1789, as he has since been under every succeeding king of fac- 
tion. The partisans of the Revolution pointed him out as a fit 
ambassador from Louis XVI to the late King of Prussia ; and he 
went in 1791 to Berlin, in that capacity ; but Frederic William 
II refused him admittance to his person, and after some ineffec- 
tu..l intrigues with the illuminati and philosofihers at Berlin, he 
returned to Paris as he left it ; provided, however, with materials 
for another libel on the Prussian monai'ch, and on the House of 
Brandenburgh, wliich he printed in 1796. Ruined by the Revo- 
lution which he had so much admired, he was imprisoned under 
Rob spierre, and was near starving under the Directory, having 
nothing but his literary productions to subsist on. In 1799, 
Buonaparte made him a legislator, and in 1803, a counsellor of 
state ; a place which he resigned last year, for that of a grand 
master of the ceremonies at the present Imperial court. His an- 
cient inveteracy against your country has made him a favourite 
with Buonaparte. The indeliciite and scandalous attacks in 
1796 and 1797, against Lord Malmesbury, in the then official 
journal, le Redact eur., were the offspring of his malignity and 
pen ; and the philippics and abusive notes in our present oHlcial 
Moniteur^ against your government and country, are frequently 
his patriotic progeny, or ratber, he often shares with Talleyrand 
and Hauterive their paternity. 

The Revolution has not made Count de Segur more happy 
with regard to his family, than in his circumstances, which, not- 
withstanding his brilliant grand mastership, are far from being 
affluent. His amiable wife died of terror, and bi'oken-hearted, 
from the sufferings she had experienced, and the atrocities she 
had witnessed ; and when he had enticed his eldest son to accept 
the place of a sub-prefect under Buonaparte, his youngest son, 
who never approved our present regeneration, challenged his 
brother to fight, and after killing him in a duel, destroyed him- 
self. Count de Segur is therefore at present neither a husband 
nor a father, but only a grand master of ceremonies ! What an 
indemnification ! 

Madame Napoleone, and her husband, are both certainly un- 
der much obligation to this nobleman, for his care to procure 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 45 

tJiem comparatively decent persons to decorate their levees and 
drawing-rooms ; who, though they have no claim either to mo- 
rality or virtue, either to honour or chastity, are undoubtedly a 
great acquisition at the Court of St. Cloud, because none of 
them has either been accused of murder, or convicted of plun- 
der ; which is the case with some of the ministers, and most of 
the generals, senators, and counsellors. It is true, that they 
are a mixture of beggared nobles, and enriched valets ; of mar- 
ried courtezans and divorced wives ; but, for all that, they can 
■with justice demand the places of honour of all other Imperial 
courtiers of both sexes. 

When Buonaparte had read over the names of these court re- 
cruits, engaged and enlisted by de Segur, he said, " Well, this 
lumber must do until \i^ can exchange it for better furniture." 
At that time, young Count d'Arberg (of a German family, on 
the right bank of thit Rhine) but whose mother is one of Ma- 
dame Buonaparte's maids of honour, was travelling for him in 
Germany, and in Prussia, where, among o\}s\qx negotiations^ he was 
charged to procure some persons of both sexes, of the most an- 
cient nobility, to augment Napoleone's suite, and to figure in 
his livery. More individuals presented themselves for this 
honour than he wanted, but they were all without education, 
and without address ; ignorant of the world as of books .; not 
speaking well their own language, much less understanding 
French or Italian ; vain of their birth, but not ashamed of their 
ignorance, and as proud as poor. This project was therefore re- 
linquished for the present ; but a number of the children of the 
principal ci-devant German nobles, who, by the treaty of Lune- 
ville and Ratisbon, had become subjects of Buonaparte, were, 
by the advice of Talleyrand, offered places in French Prytanees, 
■where the Emperor promised to take care of their future ad- 
-vancement. Madame Buonaparte, at the same time, selected 
twenty-five young girls of the same families, whom she also of- 
fered to educate at her expense. Their parents understood too 
well the meaning of these generous offers^ to dare decline their 
acceptance. These children are the plants of the Imperial 
nursery, intended to produce future pages, chamberlains, equer- 
ries, maids of honour, and ladies in waiting, who, for ancestry 
Toay bi<i defiance to all their equals of every court in christen- 



45 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

dotn. This act of benevolenccf as it was called in some German 
papers, is also an indirect chastisement of the refractory French 
mobility, who either demanded too high prices for their degi*ada« 
tion, or abrupMy refused to disgrace the names of their fore- 
fathers. 



LETTER Xn. 

Paris ^ August 1805. 



MV LORD, 



BUONAPARTE has been as profuse in his disposal of tho 
imperial diadem of Germany, as in his promises of the papal 
tiai-a of Rome. The Houses of Austria and Brandenburgh, the 
Electors of Bavaria and Baden, have by turns been cajoled into a 
belief of his exclusive support tovi'ards obtaining it at the first 
vacancy. Those, however, who have paid attention to his mar 
chinations, and studied his actions ; who remember his pedantic 
affectation of being considered a modern, or rather a second 
Charlemagne ; and who have traced his steps through the labyrinth 
of folly and wickedness, of meanness and greatness, of art, cor- 
ruption and policy, which have seated him on his present throne> 
can entertain little doubt, but that he is seriously bent on seizing 
and adding the sceptre of Germany to the crowns of France 
and Italy. 

During his stay last autumn at Mentz, all those German 
Electors, who had spirit and dignity enough to refuse to attend 
on him there in person, were obliged to send extraordinary am- 
bassadors to wait on him, and to compliment him on their part. 
Though hardly one corner of the veil that covered the intrigues 
going forward there is yet lifted up, enough is already seen to 
warn Europe and alarm the world. The secret treaties he con- 
cluded there with most of the petty Princes of Germany, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 47 

against the Chief of the German empire (which not only entire* 
ly detached them from their country andits legitimate Sovereign, 
but made their individual interests hostile, and totally opposite 
to that of the German commonwealth, transforming them also 
from independent princes into vassals of France) both directly 
increased his already gigantic power, and indirectly encouraged 
him to extend it beyond what his most sanguine expectation had 
induced him to hope. I do not make this assertion from a mere 
supposition in consequence of ulterior occurrences. At a sup- 
per with Madame Talleyrand last March, I heard her husband, 
in a gay, unguarded, or perhaps firemeditated moment, say, when 
mentioning his proposed journey to Italy, " I prepared myself 
to pass the Alps last October at Mentz. The first ground-stone 
of the throne of Italy was, strange as it may seem, laid on the 
banks of the Rhine : with such an extensive foundation, it must 
be difficult to shake, and impossible to overturn it.'' We were 
in the whole twenty-five persons at table when he spoke thus, 
many of whom he well knew, Avere intimately acquainted both 
with the Austrian and Prussian ambassadors, who, by the bye, 
both on the next day sent couriers to their respective courts. 

The French Revolution is neither seen in Germany in that 
dangerous light which might naturally be expected from the 
sufferings in which it has involved both princes and subjects, 
nor are its future effects dreaded from its past enormities. The 
cause of this impolitic and anti-patriotic apathy is to be looked 
for in the palaces of Sovereigns, and not in the dwellings of their 
people. There exists hardly a single German Prince, whose 
ministers, courtiers, and counsellors are not numbered, and have 
long been notorious among the anti-social conspirators, the illu- 
minati : most of them are knaves of abilities, who have usurped 
the easy direction of ignorance, or forced themselves as guides 
on weakness or folly, which bow to their charlatanism, as if it 
was sublimity, and hail their sophistry and imposture as inspi- 
ration. 

Among princes, thus encompassed, the Elector of Bavaria 
must be allowed the first place. A younger brother of a youn- 
ger branch, and a colonel in the service of Louis XVI, he neither 
acquired by education, nor inherited from nature, any talent to 
reign, nor posses.sed any one quality that fitted him for a higher 



48 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

situation than the head of a regiment, or a lady's drawing-room. 
He made himself justly suspected of a moral corruption, as well 
'as of a natural incapacity, when he announced his approbation of 
the Revolution against his benefactor, the late King of France, 
who, besides a regiment, had also given him a yearly pension of 
one hundred thousand livres, 4000/. Immediately after his un- 
expected accession to the Electorate of Bav -ria, he concluded a 
subsidiary treaty with your country, and his troops were ordered 
to combat rebellion, under the standard of Austrian loyalty. 
For some months it was believed that the Elector wished, by 
his conduct, to obliterate the memory of the errors, vices, and 
principles of the Duke of Deux Fonts (his former title). But 
placing all his confidence in a political adventurer and revolution- 
ary fanatic, Montgelas, without either consistency or firmness, 
without being either bent upon information, or anxious about po- 
pularity, he threw the whole burthen of state on the shoulders of 
this dangerous man, who soon showed the world that his master, 
by his first treaties, intended only to pocket your money, with- 
out serving your cause or interest. 

This Montgelas is, on account of his cunning and long stand*^ 
ing among them, worshipped by the gang of German iiiuminati 
as an idol, rather than revered as an apostle. He is their Baal, 
before whom they hope to oblige all nations upon earth to pros- 
trate themselves, as soon as infidelity has entirely banished 
Christianity ; for the iiiuminati do not expect to reign till the 
last Christian is buried under the rubbish of the last altar of 
Christ. It is not the fault of Montgelas, if such an event has 
not already occurred in the Electorate of Bavaria. 

Within six months after the treaty of Luneville, Montgelas 
began in that country his political and religious innovations. 
The nobility and the clergy were equally attacked ; the privi- 
leges of the former were invaded, and. the property of the lat- 
ter confiscated ; and had not his zeal carried him too far, so. as 
to alarm our new nobles, our new men of property, and new 
Christians, it is very pi'obable that atheism would have al- 
ready, without opposition, reared its head in the midst of Ger- 
many, and proclaimed there the rights of man, and the code 
of liberty and equality. 

The inhabitants of Bavaria are, as you know, all Roman Ca,- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 49 

tholics, and the most superstitious and ignorant Catholics of 
Germany. The step is but short from superstition to infidelity ; 
and ignorance has furnished in France more sectaries of atheism 
than perversity. The illuminati, brothers scad friends of Montge- 
las, have not been idle in that country. Their writings have per- 
verted those who had no opportunity to hear their speeches, or 
to witness their example ; and I am assured by Count de Buest, 
who travelled in Bavaria last year, that their progress among the 
lower classes is astonishing, considering the short period these 
emissaries have laboured. To any one looking on the map of 
the continent, and acquainted with the spirit of our times, this 
impious focus of illumination must be ominous. 

Among the members of the foreign diplomatic corps, there 
exists not the least doubt but that this Montgelas, as well as 
Buonaparte's minister at Munich, Otto, was acquainted with thd 
treacherous part Meh6e de la Touche played against your 
minister, Drake ; and that it was planned between him and Tal- 
leyrand, as the surest means to break off all political connexions 
between your country and Bavaria. Mr. Drake was personally 
liked by the Elector, and was not inattentive either to the plans 
and views of Montgelas, or to the intrigues of Otto. They 
were, therefore, both doubly interested to remove such a trouble- 
some witness. 

M. de Montgelas is now a grand officer of Buonaparte's Le- 
gion of Honour, and he is one of the few foreigners nominated, 
the most worthy of such a distinction. In France he would have 
been an acquisition either to the factions of a Marat, of a Brissot, 
or of a Robespierre ; and the Goddess of Reason, as well as the 
God of the Theophilanthropists, might have been sure of count- 
ing him among their adorers. At the clubs of the Jacobins or 
Cordeliers, in the fraternal societies, or in a revolutionary tribu- 
nal ; in the Committee of Public Safety, or in the council cham- 
ber of the Directory, he would equally have made himself noto- 
rious and been equally in his place. A stoic sans-culotte under 
Du Clots, a staunch republican under Robespierre, he would 
now have been the most pliant and brilliant courtier of Buona- 
parte. 



H 



so SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

LETTER XIIL 

Parisf August. 1805^ 

MY LORDy 

NO Queen of France ever saw so many foreign princes and 
princesses in her drawing-rooms as the first Empress of the 
French did last year at Mentz ; and no Sovereign was ever be- 
fore so well paid, or accepted with less difficulty donations and 
presents for her gracious protection. Madame Napoleone her- 
self, on her return to this capital last October, boasted that she 
was ten millions of livres (420,000/) richer in diamonds } two 
millions of livres (62,000/) richer in pearls, and three millions 
of livres (125,000/). richer in plate and china, than in the June 
before, when she quitted it. She acknowledged that she left 
behind her some creditors and some money at Aix la Ghapelle } 
but at Mentz, she did not want to borrow, nor had time to gam- 
ble ; the gallant ultra Rhonians provided every thing, even to the 
utmost extent of her wishes j and she, on her part, could not but 
honour those with her company as much as possible, particularly 
as th^y required nothing else for their civilities. Such was the 
Empress's expression to her lady in waiting, the handsonic 
Madame Seran, with whom no confidence, no tale, no story, and 
no scandal expires ; and who was in a great hurry to inform, the 
same evening, the tea party at Madame de Beauvais of this good 
news; complaining at the same time of not having had the least 
share in this rich harvest. 

, No where indeed were bribery and corrupted carried to a grea- 
Xsx extent, or practised with more effrontery, than at Mentz. 
Madame Napoleone had as much her fixed price for every 
favourable word she spoke, as Talleyrand had for every line he 
wrote. , Even the attendants of the former, and the clerks of the 
latter, demanded or rather extorted douceurs from the exhausted 
and almost ruined German petitioners ; who in the end were re- 
warded for all their meanness and for all their expenses with 
promises at best ; as the new plan of supplementary indiemnities 
was, on the very day proposed for its final arrangement, postponed 



COURT OF ST. CLOUb. 51 

by the desire of the Emperor of the French until farther orders.' 
This firovoking delay could no more be foreseen by the Empress 
than by the minister, who, in retitrn for their presents and money, 
almost overpowered the German Princes with his protestations 
of regret at their disappointments. Nor was Madame Buona- 
parte less sorry or less civil. She sent her chamberlain, Dau- 
busson la Feuillad, with regular compliments of condolence, to 
fevery Prince who had enjoyed her protection. They returned to 
their homes, therefore, if not wealthier, at least happier ; flat- 
tered by assurances and condescensions, confiding in hope as in 
certainties. Within three months, however, it is supposed that 
they would willingly have disposed both of promises and expec- 
tations, at a loss of fifty per cent. . r 

By the cupidity and selfishness of these and other Gennaii 
Princes, and their want of patriotism, Talleyrand wjts become 
perfectly acquainted with the value and production of every prin- 
cipality, bishopric, county, abbey, barony, convent, and evea 
village in the German empire ; and though most national pro- 
perty in France was disposed of at one or two years purchase, he 
required five years purchase-money for all the estates and lands 
6n the other side of the Rhine ; of which, under the name of 
indemnities, he stripped the lawful owners, to gratify the ambi- 
tion or avidity of intruders. This high price has cooled the 
claims of the bidders, and the plan of the supplementary indem- 
nities is still suspended, and probably will continue so until our 
minister lowers his terms. A combination is supposed to have 
been entered into by the chief demanders of indemnities, by 
which they have bound themselves to resist all further extortions. 
They do not, however, know the man they have to deal with ; 
he will, perhaps, find out some to lay claim to their own private 
and hereditary property, whom he will produce and support, and 
tvho certainly will have the same right to pillage them, as they 
had to the spoils of others. 

It was repoi'ted in our fashionable circles last autumn, and 
smiled at by Talleyrand, that he promised the Countess de L. an 
abbey, and the Baroness de S— -z, a convent, for certain per- 
sonal favours, and that he offered a bishopric to the Princess of 
H ^ 1.1 1 I . on the same terms ; but this lady answered, " that she 



52 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

would think of his offers after he had put her husband in pos- 
session of the bishopric." It is not necessary to observe that 
both the Countess and the Baroness are yet waiting to enjoy his 
liberal donations, and to be indemnified for their prostitution. 

Napoleone Buonaparte was attacked by a fit of jealousy at 
Mentz. The young nephew of the Elector Arch-Chancel- 
lor, Count de L— ge, was very assiduous about the Empress, 
who, herself, at first mistook the motive. Her confidential se- 
cretary, Deschamps, however, afterwards informed her, that this 
nobleman wanted to purchase the place of a coadjutor to his un- 
cle, so as to be certain of succeeding him. He obtained, there- 
fore, several private audiences, no doubt to regulate the price ; 
when Napoleone put a stop to this secret negotiation, by having 
the Count carried by gens-d'armes, nvith great politeness, to the 
other side of the Rhine. When convinced of his error, Buona- 
parte asked his wife what sum had been proposed for her firotec^ 
Hon, and immediately gave her an order on his minister of the 
treasury, Marbois, for the amount. This was an act of justice* 
aiid a reparation worthy of a good and tender husband ; but 
when, the very next day, he recalled this order, threw it into the 
fire before her eyes, and confined her for six hours in her bedr 
room, because she was not dressed time enough to take a walk 
with him on the ramparts, one is apt to believe that military des- 
potism has erased from his bosom all connubial affection ; and 
that a momentary effusion of kindness and generosity can but 
little alleviate the frequent pangs caused by repeated insults and 
oppression. Fortunately, Madame Napoleone's disposition is 
proof against rudeness as well as against brutality. If what her 
friend and consoler, Madame Dula9ay, reports of her is not ex- 
aggerated, her tranquillity is not much disturbed, nor her happi- 
ness affected, by these explosions of passionate authority ; and 
she prefers admiring in vmdisturhed solitude her diamond box 
to the most beautiful prospects in the most agreeable company j 
and she inspects with more pleasure in confinement her rich 
wardrobe, her beautiful china, and her heavy plate, than she would 
find satisfaction, surrounded with crowds, in contemplating na- 
ture even in its utmost perfection. « The paradise of Madame 
Napoleone," says her friend, « must be of metal, and lighted by 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. S3. 

the lustre of brilliants, else she would decline it for a hell, and 
accept Lucifer himself for a spouse, provided gold flowed in his 
infernal domains, though she were even to be scorched by its 
heat." 



LETTER XIV. 

Parisy jiugust 1805. 



MY LOHD, 



I BELIEVE that 1 have mentioned to you, when in England, 
that I was an old acquaintance of Madame Napoleone, and a vi- 
sitor at the house of her first husband. When introduced to 
her after some years absence, during which, fortune had treated 
us very differently, she received me with more civility than I 
was prepared to expect ; and would, perhaps, have spoken to me 
more than she did, had not a look of her husband silenced her. 
Madame Louis Buonaparte was still more condescending, and re- 
called to my memory, what I had not forgotten, how often she 
had been seated, when a child, on my lap, and played on my knees 
with her doll. Thus they behaved to me, when I saw them for 
the first time in their present elevation ; I found them afterwards 
in their drawing-rooms, or at their routs and pai'ties, more shy 
and distant. This change did not much surprise me, as I hard- 
ly knew any one, that had the slightest pretension to their ac- 
quaintance, who had not troubled them for employment, or bor- 
rowed their money ; at the same time that they complained of 
their neglect, and their breach of promises. I continued, how- 
ever, as much as etiquette and decency required, assiduous, but 
never familiar ; if they addressed me, I answered with respect, 
but not with servility ; if not, I bowed in silence when they pass- 
ed. They might easily perceive that I did not intend to be* 
come an intruder, nor to make the remembrance of what was 
past an apology or a reason for applying for present favours. 
A lady, on intimate terms with Madame Napoleone, and once 



$4 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

our common friend, informed me, shortly after the untimely 
end of the lamented Duke of Enghien, that she had been asked, 
whether she knew any thing that could be done for me, or whe- 
ther I would not be flattered by obtaining a place in the Legisla- 
tive Body, or in the Tribunate ? I answered as I thought, that 
were I fit for a public life, nothing could be more agreeable, or 
suit me better ; but having hitherto declined all employments, 
that might restrain that independence, to which I had accus- 
tomed myself from my youth, I was now too old to enter upon 
a new career. I added, that though the Revolution had reduced 
my circumstances, it had not entirely ruined me. I was still in- 
dependent, because my means were the boundaries of my wants. 

A week after this conversation, General Murat, the governor 
of this capital, and Buonaparte's favourite brother-in-law, invi- 
ted me to a conversation, in a note delivered to me by an aide-de- 
camp, who told me that he was ordered to wait for my com- 
pany, or, which was the same, he had orders «ot to lose sight of 
me, as I was his prisoner. Having nothing with which to re- 
proach myself, and all my written remarks being deposited with 
a friend, whom none of the Imperial functionaries could suspect, 
I entered a hackney coach without any fear or apprehension ; 
and we drove to the governor's hotel. 

From the manner in which General Murat addressed me, I 
was soon convinced, that if I had been accused of any error or 
indiscretion, the accusation could not be very grave in his eyes. 
He entered with me into his cabinet, and inquired whether I had 
any enemies at the police office ? I told him not, to my know- 
ledge.^" Is the police minister and senator Fouche, your 
friend," continued he ?.-^" Fouche," said I, " has bought an es- 
tate that formerly belonged to me : may he enjoy it with the 
same peace of mind as I have lost it. I have never spoken to 
him in my life." — ^" Have you not complained at Madame die la 
Force's, of the execution of the ci'devant Duke of Enghien, and 
agreed, with the other members of her coterie, to put on mourn- 
ing for him." — " I have never been at the house of that lady 
since the death of the Prince ; nor more than once in my life." 
•— " Where did you pass the evening last Saturday ?" — " At the 
hotel, and in the assembly, of Princess Louis Buonaparte."—. 
« Did she sec you ?" <' I believe that she did, because she re- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 55 

teimed my salute." — ^« You have known her Imperial Highness 
along time ?" « From her infancy."—" Well, I congratulate 
you. You have in her a generous protectress. But for her, 
you would now- have been on the M'ay to Cayenne. Here you see 
the list of persons condemned yesterday, upon the report of 
Fouch6, to- transportation. Your name is at the head of them. 
You were not only accused of being an agent of the Bourbons, 
but of having intrigued to become a member of the Legislature, 
or of the Tribunate, that you might have so much the better 
opportunity to serve them. Fortunately for you, the Emperor 
remembered that the Princess Louis had demanded such a fa- 
vour for you, and he informed her of the character of her 
firotegS. This brought forward your innocence, because it was 
discovered that, instead of asking for, you had declined, the of- 
fer she had made you through the Empress.— -Write the Princess 
a. letter of thanks — -You have indeed had a narrow escape, but 
it. has been so far useful to you, that government is now aware 
of your having some secret enemy in power, who is not delicate 
about the jneans of injuring you.** 

In quitting General Murat, I could not help deploring the fate 
of a despot, even while I abhorred his unnatural power. The 
curses, the complaints, and reproaches for all the crimes, all 
the violence, all the oppression perpetrated in his name, are en- 
tirely thrown upon him ; while his situation and occupation do 
not admit the seeing and hearing every thing and every body 
himself ; he is often forced therefore to judge, according to the. 
report of. an impostor ; to sanction with his name the hatred, 
malignity or vengeance of culpable individuals ; and to sacrifice 
innocence to gratify the vile passions of his vilest slave. I have 
not so bad an opinion of Buonaparte, as to think him capable of 
wilfully condemning any person to death or transportation, of 
whose innocence he was convinced, provided that person stood 
riot in the way of his interest and ambition ; but suspicion and ty- 
ranny are inseparable companions, and injustice their common 
progeny. The unfortunate beings on the long list General Mu- 
rat shewed me, were, I dare say, most of them as mnocent as 
myself, and all certainly condemned unheard. But suppose, even, 
that they had been indiscreet enough to put on mourning for a 
prince of the blood of their former kings, did their imprudence 



56 ^j SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

deserve the same punishment as the deed of the robber, the 
forger, or the house-breaker ? and indeed it was more severe 
than what our laws inflict on such criminals, who are only con- 
demned to transportation for some few years, after a public trial 
and conviction ; while the exile of these unconvicted, untried, 
and most probably innocent persons, is continued for life, on 
charges as unknown to themselves, as their destiny and resi- 
dence remain to their families and friends. Happy England ! 
where no one is condemned unheard, and no one dares attempt 
to make the laws subservient to his passions or caprice. 

As to Fouche*s enmity, at which General Murat so plainly 
hinted, I had long apprehended it, from what others, in similar 
circumstances with myself, had suffered. He has, since the 
Revolution, bought no less than sixteen national estates, seven 
of the former proprietors of which have suddenly disappeared 
since his ministry, probably in the manner he intended to re- 
move me. This man is one of the most immoral characters 
the Revolution has dragged forward from obscurity. It is more 
difficult to mention a crime that he has not perpetrated than to 
discover a good or just action that he ever performed. He is 
so notorious a villain, that even the infamous National Conven- 
tion expelled him from its bosom, and since his ministry no man 
has been found base enough, in my debased country, to extenu- 
ate, much less to defend, his past enormities. In a nation so 
greatly corrupted and immoral, this alone is more than negative 
evidence. 

As a friar before the Revolution, he has avonved^ in his corres- 
pondence with the National Convention, that he never believed 
in a God J and as one of the first public functionaries of a Re- 
public, he has officially denied the existence of virtue. He is 
therefore as unmoved by tears as by reproaches, and as inaccessi- 
ble to remorse as hardened against repentance. With him in- 
terest and bribes are every thing, and honour and honesty nothing. 
The suppliant, or the pleader, who appears before him with no 
other support than the justice of his cause, is fortunate indeed, 
if, after being cast, he is not also confined or ruined, and per- 
haps both ; while a line from one of the Buonapartes, or a purse 
of gold, changes black to white, guilt to innocence, removes 
the scaffold waiting for the assassin, and extinguishes the f«g- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. $7 

gots lighted for the parricide. His authority is so extensive, 
that, on the least signal,' with one blow, from the extremities 
of France to her centre, it crushes the cot and the palace ; 
and his decisions, against which there is no appeal, are so de- 
structive, that they never leave any traces behind them, and 
Buonaparte, Buonaparte alone-, can prevent or arrest their effect- 
• Though a traitor to his former benefactor, the ex-Director 
Barras, he possesses now the unlimited confidence of Napoleone 
Buonaparte, and, as far as is known, has not yet done any thing 
to forfeit it ; if private acts of cruelty cannot, in the agent of a 
tyrant, be' called breach of trust or infidelity. He shares with 
Talleyrand the fraternity of the vigilant, immoral and tormenting 
secret police ; and with Real, and Dubois, the prefect of police, 
the rep'roduction, or rather the invention, of new tortures and 
improved racks; 'the ott6/£eifife«, which are wells or pits dug un- 
der the Temple, and most other prisons, are the works of his 
own infernal genius. They are covered with trap doors, atld 
any person whom the rack has mutilated, or not obliged to spealc: 
out ; whose return to society is thought dangerous, or whose dis- 
cretion is suspected ; who has been imprisoned by mistake, or 
discovered to be innocent ; who is disagreeable to the Buona- 
partes, their favourites, or the mistresses of their favourites ; 
who has displeased Fouche, or offended some other placeman ; 
any who have refused to part with their property for the reco- 
very of their - liberty, are all precipitated into these artificial 
abysses — ,there to he forgotten ; or worse, to be starved to death, 
if they have not been fortunate enough to break their neck, and 
be killed by the fall. 

The property Fouche has acquired by his robberies, within 
these last twelve years, is at the lowest rate valued at fifty mil- 
lions of livres, 2,100,000/. which must increase yearly; as a 
man who disposes of thp liberty of fifty millions of people is 
also in a great part master of their wealth. Except the chiefs 
of tlie governments, and their ofiicers of state, there exists not 
an inhabitant of France, Italy, Hollapd, or Switzerland, who 
can consider himself secure for an instant, of not being seized, 
imprisoned, plundei-ed, tortured or exterminated, by the orders 
of Fouche, and by the hands of his agents. 



SS SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

"^ou will no doubt exclaim, how can Buonaparte employ^ how 
dares he confide in such a man ? Fouche is as able as unprincipled, 
and, with the most unfeeling and perverse heart, possesses great 
talents. There is no infamy he will not stoop to, and no crimen 
however execrable, that he will hesitate to commit, if his Sove- 
reign orders it. He is therefore a most useful instrument in the 
hand of a despot, who, notwithstanding what is said to the con- 
trary in France, and believed abroad, would cease to rule the 
day he became just, and the reign of laws and of humanity ha* 
nished terror and tyranny. 

It is reported that some person, pious or revengeful^ present-* 
cd some time ago, to the devout mother of Napoleone, a long me» 
morial, containing some particulars of the crimes and vices of 
Fouche and Talleyrand ; and required of her, if she wished to 
prevent the curses of Heaven from falling on her son, to inform 
him of them, that he might cease to employ men, so unworthy of 
him, and so offensive to religion. Napoleone, after reading 
through the memorial, is stated to have answered his mother, who 
was always pressing him to dismiss these ministers : " The me-s 
morial, Madame, contains nothing, of which I was not previoualy 
informed. Louis XVI did not select any but those whom h© 
thought the most virtuous and moral of men, for his ministers 
and counsellors 5 and where did their virtues and morality bring 
him ?• If the writer of the memorial will mention two honest ^nd 
irreproachable characters, with equal talents, and geal to serve 
we, neither Fou<:h^ nor Talleyrsind shall again he admitted inta 
n\y pjegeneq." 



: COURT OF ST. CLOUD, S9 

LETTER XV. 

Paris^ Augutt IZQS. 
Mt LoiRfi, 

YOU have \vith some reason, in England, complained of the 
conduct of the members of the foreign diplomatic corps in France, 
when the fw-etended correspondence between Mr. Drake and 
Meh6e de la Touche was published in our official gazette. Had 
you, howevei", like myself, been in a situation to study the charac- 
ters, and appreciate the 'ivortk of most of them, this conduct would 
have excited no surprise ; and pity would have taken the place 
both of accusation and reproach. Hardly one of theni, except 
Count Philippe de Cobentzel, the Austrian ambassador (and even 
he is considerably involved), possesses any property, or has any 
thing else but his salary to depend upon for subsistence. The 
least offence to Buonaparte or Talleyrand would instantly deprive 
them of their places ; and, unless they were fortunate enough to 
obtain some other appointment, reduce them to live in obscurityj 
and perhaps in want, upon a trifling pension in their own country. 

The day before Mr. Drake's correspondence appeared in the 
Moniteur, in March 1804, Talleyrand gave a grand diplomatic 
dinner; in the midst of which, as was previously agreed with Buo* 
naparte, Duroc called him out oa the part of the First Consul. 
After an absence of near an hour, which excited great curiosity 
and some alarm among the diplomatics, he returned very thought- 
ful, and seemingly very low spirited. " Excuse me, gentlemen," 
said he, " I have been unpolite against my inclination. The First 
Consul knew that you honoured me with your company to day, 
and would therefore not have interrupted me by his orders, had 
not a discovery of a most extraordinary nature against the law of 
nations just been made ; a discovery which calls for the immediate 
indignation against the cabinet of St. James, not only of France, 
but of every nation, that wishes for the preservation of civilized 
society. After dinner I shall do myself the honour of communi- 
cating to you the particulars, well convinced that you will all 
enter with warmth into the just resentment of the First Consul," 



60 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

During the repast, the bottle went freely round, and as soon 
as they had drank their coffee and liqueurs, Talleyrand rung a bell, 
and Hauterive presented himself, with a large bundle of papers. 
The pretended original letters of Mr. Drake were handed about, 
with the commentaries of the minister and his secretary. Their' 
heads heated with wine, it was not difficult to influence their minds, 
or to mislead their judgment, and they exclaimed, as in a chorus, 
C'est abominable .' Cela faitfremir ! Talleyrand took advantage of 
their situation, as well as of their indiscretion. " I am glad, gen- 
tlemen,", said he, " and shall not fail to inform the First Consul 
of yonr unanimous sentiments on this disagreeable subject; but 
verbal expressions are not sufficient in an affair of such great con- 
sequence. I have orders to demand your written declarations, 
w-hich, after what you have already expressed, you cannot hesitate 
about sending to me to night, that they may accompany the 
denunciation which the First Consul dispatches within some few 
hours, to all the courts on the Continent. You would much 
please the First Consul, were you to write as near as possible 
according to the formula which' my secretary has drawn up. It 
states nothing either against convenance^ or against the customs of 
sovereigns, or etiquettes of courts ; and I am certain, is also per- 
fectly congenial with your individual feelings." A silence of 
some moments now followed (as all the diplomatists were rather 
taken by surprise, with regard to a written declaration), which 
the Swedish ambassador. Baron Ehrensward, interrupted by 
saying, " that though he personally might have no objection 
to sign such a declaration, he must demand some time to consider, 
whether he had a right to write in the name of his Sovereign, 
without his orders, on a subject still unknown to him." This re- 
mark made the Austrian ambassador. Count de Cobentzel, pro- 
pose a private consultation among the members of the foreign 
diplomatic corps at one of their hotels, to which the Russian 
charge d'affaires, d'Oubril, who was not at the dinner party, was 
invited to assist. They met accordingly, at the hotel de Mont- 
morency, rue de Lille, occupied by Count de Cobentzel ; but they 
came to no other unanimous determination, than that of answer- 
ing a written communication of Talleyrand, by a written note, ac- 
cording as every one judged most proper and prudent, and cor- 
responding with the supposed sentiments of his Sovereign. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD, 61 

As all this official correspondence has been published in 
England, you may, upon reading the notes presented by Baron 
de Dreyer, and Mr. Livingston,* the neutral ambassadors of 
Denmark and America, form some tolerably just idea of Talley- 
rand's formula. Their impolitic sei'vility was blamed even by the 
other members of the diplomatic corps. 

Livingston, you know, and perhaps have not. to learn, though 
a staunch republican in America, was the most abject courtier 
in France ; and though a violent defender of liberty and equa- 
lity on the other side of the Atlantic, no man bowed lower to 
usurpation, or revered despotism more in Europe. Without 
talents, and almost without education, he thinks, intrigues negotia- 
tions, and conceives that policy and duplicity are synonymous. 
He was called here " the courier of Talleyrand," on account of 
his voyages to England, and his journeys to Holland ; where this 
minister sent him to intrigue, with less ceremony than one of his 
secret agents. He acknowledged that no government was more 
liberal, and no nation more free, than the British; but he hated 
the one, as much as he abused the other ; and he did not conceal 
sentiments that made him always so welcome to Buonaparte and 
Talleyrand. Never over nice in the choice of his companions, 
Arthur O'Connor, and "other Irish traitors and vagabonds, used his 
house as their own; so much so, that when he invited other am- 
bassadors to dine with him, they, before they accepted the invita- 
tion, made a condition, that no outlaws or adventurers should be 
of the party. 

In your youth. Baron de Dreyei* was an ambassador from the 
court of Copenhagen to that of St. James. He has since been in 
the same capacity to the courts of St. Petersburgh and Madrid. 
Born a Norwegian, of a poor and obscure family, he owes his ad- 
vancement to his own talents ; but these, though they have procu- 
red him rank, have left him without a fortune. When he came 



* In consequence of this conduct, Livingston was recalled by his govern- 
ment, and lives now in obscurity and disgrace in America. To console 
him, however, in his misfortune, Buonaparte, on his departure, presented 
him with his portrait, enamelled on the lid of a snufF-box, set round with 
diamonds, and valued at one thousand Louis d'ors. 



62 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

here, in June 1797, from Spain, he brought a mistress with him, 
and several children he had had by her, during his residence in 
that country. He also kept an English mistress, some thirty 
years ago in London, by whom he had a son, M. Guillaumeau, 
who is now his secretary. Thus encumbered, and thus situated, 
at the age of 70, it is no surprise if he strives to die at his post ; 
and that fear to offend Buonaparte and Talleyrand sometimes gets 
the better of his prudence. 

. In Denmai'k, as well as in all other Continental States, the 
pensions of diplomatic invalids are more scanty than those of mi- 
litary ones ; and totally insufficient for a man, who, during half a 
century nearly, has accustomed himself to a certain style of life, 
and to expenses requisite to represent his Prince with dignity. 
No wonder therefore that Baron de Dreyer prefers Paris to Co- 
penhagen, and that the cunning Talleyrand takes advantage of 
this preference. 

It was reported here, among our foreign diplomatists, that the 
English minister in Denmark complained of the contents of Ba- 
ron de Dreyer's note, concerning Mr. Drake's correspondence ; 
and that the Danish prime minister, Count de Bernstorf, wrote to 
him in consequence, by the order of the Prince Royal, a severe 
reprimand. This act of political justice is, however, denied by 
him, under pretence that the cabinet of Copenhagen has laid it 
down as an invariable rule, never to reprimand, but always to dis- 
place those of its agents with whom it has reason to be discontent- 
ed. Should this be the case, no Sovereign in Europe is better 
sei'ved by his representatives than his Danish Majesty, because 
Mo one seldomer changes or removes them. 

While I am speaking of diplomatists, I cannot forbear giving 
you a short sketch of one, whose weight in the scale of politics 
entitles him to particular notice : I mean the Count de Haugwitz, 
insidiously complimented by Talleyrand, with the title of " The 
Prince of Neutrality, the Sully of Prussia." Christian Henry 
Curce, Count de Haugwitz, who, until lately, has been the chief 
director of the political conscience of his Prussian Majesty, as his 
minister of the foreign department, was born in Silesia, and is the 
son of a nobleman, who was a General in the Austrian service, 
when Frederic the Great made the conquest of that country. At 
the death of this King in 1786, Count de Haugwitz occupied an 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 63 

inferior place in the foreign office, where Count de Hertzberg ob- 
served his zeal and assiduity, and recommended him to the notice 
of the late King Frederic William II. By the interest of the 
celebrated Beshopswerder, he procured in 1792 the appointment 
of an ambassador to the court of Vienna, where he succeeded 
Baron de Jacobi, the present Prussian minister in your country. 
In the autumn of the same year he went to Ratisbon, to co-operate 
with the Austrian ambassador, and to persuade the Princes of 
the German empire to join the coalition against France. In the 
month of March 1794 he was serit to the Hague, where he nego- 
ciated with Lord Malmesbury concerning the affairs of France; 
shortly afterwards his nomination as a minister of state took place ; 
and from that time his political sentiments seem to have under- 
gone a revolution, for which it is not easy to account ; but, what- 
ever were the causes of his change of opinions, the treaty of 
Basle, concluded between France and Prussia in 1795, was cer- 
tainly negociated under his auspices; and in August 1796 he 
signed, with the French minister at Berlin, citizen Caillard, the 
first and famous treaty of neutrality ; and a Prussian cordon was 
accordingly drawn, to cause the neutrality of the North to be ob- 
served and protected. Had the Count de Haugwitz of 1795 been 
the same as the Count de Haugwitz of 1792, it is probable we 
should no longer have heard of either a French republic or a 
French empire; but a legitimate Monarch of the kingdom of 
France would have ensured that security to all other legitimate 
Sovereigns, the want of which th§y themselves, or their children, 
will feel and mourn in vain, as long as unlimited usurpations ty- 
rannize over my wretched country. It is to be hoped, however, 
that the good sense of the Count will point out to him, before it 
is too late, the impolicy of his present connections ; and that he 
will use his interest with his Prince, to persuade him to adopt a 
line of conduct suited to the grandeur and dignity of the Prussian 
monarchy, and favourable to the independence of insulted Europe. 
When his present Prussian Majesty succeeded to the throne, 
Count de Haugwitz continued in office, with increased influence ; 
but he sometime since resigned, in consequence, it is said, of a 
difference of opinion with the other Prussian ministers, on the 
subject of a family alliance, which Buonaparte had the modest-^ 



64 SECRET HISTORY. OF THE 

to propose) between the illustrious house of Napoleone the First 
and the royal line of Brandenburgh. 

; On this occasion, his King, to evince his satisfaction, with, liis 
past conduct, bestowed on him not only a large pension, but an 
estate in Silesia, where he before possessed some propei'ty. 
:Puonaparte, also, to express his regret at his retreat, pro- 
claimed his Excellency a grand officer of the Legion, of Honour. 
\ Talleyrand insolently calls the several cordons, or ribands, dis- 
tributed by Buonaparte among the Prussian ministers and gene- 
rals, "his leading-strings." . It. is to be hoped, that Frederic 
William III is sufficiently upon his guard, to preyent these 
strings ivovsx strangling the Prussian Monarchy, and the, Branden- 
burgh Dynasty* 



LETTER XVI. 

Paris, August 1805, 



MY LORD, 



UPWARDS of two months after my visit to General Murat, 
I was surprised at the appearance of M. Darjuson, the cham- 
berlain of Princess Louis Buonaparte. He told me that he came 
on the part of Prince Louis, who honoured me with an invi- 
tation to dine with him the day after. Upon my inquiry, whe- 
ther he knew if the party would be very numerous, he answered, 
between forty and fifty ; and that it was a kind of farewel din- 
ner ; because the Prince intended shortly to set out for Com- 
piegne, to assume the command of the camp formed in, its 
vicinity, of the dragoons and other light troops of the army of 
England. 

The principal personages present at this dinner were Joseph 
Buonaparte, and his wife ; General and Madame Murat j the 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 65 

ministers Berthier, Talleyrand, Fouche, Chaptal, and Portalis. 
The conversation was entirely military, and chiefly related to 
the probable conquest or subjugation of Great Britain, and the 
probable consequence to mankind in general of such a gr^at 
event. No difference of opinion was heard with regard to its 
immediate benefit to France, and gradual utility to all other 
nations ; but Berthier seemed to apprehend, that before France 
could have timie to organize this valuable conquest, she would 
be obliged to support another war, with a formidable league, 
perhaps of all other European nations. The issue, however, he 
said, would be glorious to France, who, by her achievements 
would force all people to acknowledge her their mother country ; 
and then first Europe would constitute but one family. 

Chaptal was as certain as every body else, of the destructioa 
of the tyrants of the seas ; but he thought France would never 
be secure against the treachery of modern Carthage, until ,she 
followed the example of Rome towai-ds ancient Carthage; and 
therefore, after reducing London to ashes, it would be proper to 
disperse round the universe, all the inhabitants of the British 
islands, and to re-people them with nations less evil-disposed, 
and less corrupted. Portalis observed, that it was moi'e easy to 
conceive than to execute such a vast plan. It would not be an 
undertaking of five, of ten, nor of twenty years, to transplant 
these nations ; that misfortunes and proscription would not only 
inspire courage and obstinacy, but desperation. " No people,'* 
continued he, " are more attached to their customs and countries 
than islanders in general ; and though British subjects are the 
greatest travellers, and found every where, they all suppose 
their country the best, and always wish to return to it, and finish 
tlieir days amidst their native fogs and smoke. Neither the 
Saxons nor the Danes, nor Norman conquerors, transplanted 
them, but after reducing them, incorporated themselves by mar- 
riages among the vanquished; and in some few generations, 
were but one people. It is asserted by all persons who have 
lately visited Great Britain, that, though the civilization of the 
lower classes, is much behind that of the same description in 
France, the higher orders, the rich and the, fashionable, are, 
with regard to their manners, more French than English ; and 
might easily be cajoled into obedience and subjection to the sove- 

K 



66 SECRET' HISTORY OF THE 

teighty of a nation, whose customs by free choice they havt 
adopted in preference to their own ; and whose language forms 
a necessary part of their education ; and indeed, of the education 
of almost every class in the British empire. The universality 
of the French language is the best ally France has in assisting 
her to conquer an universal dominion. He wished, therefore, 
that when we were in a situation to dictate in England, instead 
of proscribing Englishmen, we should proscribe the English 
language ; and advance and reward in preference all those parents 
tvhpse children were sent to be educated in France, and all those 
families who voluntarily adopted in their houses and societies 
exclusively the French language. Murat was afraid that if 
France did not transplant the most stubborn Britons, iaftd settle 
among them French colonies, when once their - military and 
commercial navy was annihilated, they Would turn pirates, and 
perhaps, within half a century, lay all other nations as much 
under contribution by their piracies as they now do by their 
industry ; and that, like the pirates on the coast of Barbary, 
the instant they had no connexions with other civilized nations, 
cut the throats of each other, and agree in nothing but in plun- 
dering, and considering all other people in the world their natu* 
yal enemies and purveyors.^ To this opinion Talleyrand, by nod- 
ding assent, seemed to adhere j but he added, " Earthquakes are 
generally dreaded as destructive, but such a convulsion of nature 
as would swallow up the British islands, with all their inha- 
bitants, would be the greatest blessing Providence ever conferred 
on mankind." 

Louis Buonaparte then addressed himself tome, and to the 
Marquis de F- : " Gentlemen," said he, " you have been in 
•England ; what is your opinion of the character of these islan- 
ders, and of the probability of their subjugation V I answered, 
that during the fifteen months I resided in London, I was too 
much occupied to prevent myself from starving, to meditate 
about any thing else ; that my stomach was my sole meditation, 
as well as anxiety. That, however, I believed, that in England, 
as every where else, a mixture of good and bad qu;alities was to 
%e found; but which prevailed would be presumption in me, 
front my position, to detide. But I did not doubt, that if We 
t^ot^ially hated the English, they returned us the compliment 



COURT OF ST: GLOUD. ^J^ 

'with interest, and therefore the contest with them would be a 
severe one. The Marquis de F— ...-^imprudently attempted to, 
convince the company, that it was difficult, if not impossible, 
for our army to land in England, much less to conquer it, until 
we were masters of the seaa by a, superior navy. — .He would, 
perhaps, have been still more indiscreet, had not Madam,e. 
Loyis interrupted him, and given another turn to the convert. 
30.tion), by inquiring about the fair pex in England, and ; if ^ it wa,f 
tj'Ufi that handsome women were more numerous there than in, 
France ? Here again the Marquis, instead of paying her a 
<5orapliment, as she perhaps expected, roundly assured her, tha| 
for one beauty, in France, hundreds might be counted in Engi» 
land, where gentlemen were therefore not so easily satisfied; 
and that a woman, regarded by them only as an ordinary person, 
would pass ft»r a first rate beauty anj^ong French beaux, oq.. 
account of the great scarcity of them here.— ^« You must excus^ 
the Marquis, ladies," said I in my turn, " he has not been in 
love in England ; there perhaps he found the belles less cruel 
than in France ; where^ for the cruelty of one lady, or for help 
insensibility of his merit, he revenges himself on the whole. 
5£X."— ^" I apply to M. Talleyrand," answered the Marquis ; 
« he has been longer in England than myself." — " I am not a 
competent judge," retorted the minister ; *' Madame Talleyrand 
is here, and has not the honour of being a Frenchwoman, but J 
dare say the Marquis will agree with me, that in no society in 
the Bi'itish island, among a do^en of ladies, has he counted ' 
Bftore beautiesi, or admired greater accomplishments, or more^" 
perfection/' To this the Marquis bowed assent, saying, that in 
all his general remarks, the party present of course was not 
included. All the ladies, who were well acquainted with hi^ 
absent and blundering conversation, very good humouredly laugh- 
ed ; and Madame Murat assured him that if he would give her 
the address of the belle in France who had transformed a gallant 
Frenchman into a chevalier of British beauty, she would attempt 
to make up their difference, " She is no more, Madame," 
js.n5wered the Marquis ; " she was unfortunately guillotined tvo 
days before--.Cthe father of Madame Louis, he was going to say, 
when Talleyrand interrupted him with a significant Iqok, and 
said) " before the fall of Robespierre, you mean." 



68 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

From these and other traits of the Marquis's character, you 
may see that he erred more from absence of mind than any 
premeditation to give offence. He received, however, the next 
morning a lettre de cachet from Fouche, which exiled him to 
Blois, and forbade him to return to Paris without further orders 
from the minister of police. I know from high authority, that 
to the interference of Princess Louis alone is he indebted for not 
being shut up iji the Temple, and perhaps transported to our 
colonies, for having depreciated the power and means of France 
to invade England. I am perfectly convinced that none of thos« 
"Who spoke on the subject of the invasion expressed any thing 
but what they really thought ; and that of the whole party, none, 
except Talleyrand, the Marquis, and myself, entertained the 
least doubt pf the success of the expedition ; so firmly did they 
rely on the former fortune of Buonaparte, his boastings and hi» 
assurance, 

After dinner, \ had an opportunity of conversing for ten min« 
utes with Madame Louis Buonaparte, whom I found extremely 
amiable ; but I fear that she is not happy. Her husband, though 
the most stupid, is however the best tempered of the Buona- 
partes, and seemed very attentive and attached to her. She was 
far advanced in her pregnancy, and looked notwithstanding 
uncommonly well. I have heard that Louis is inclined to ine- 
briatiouj and when in that situation, is very brutal to his wife, 
and very indelicate with other women before her eyes. He 
intrigues with her own servants ; and the number of his illegiti- 
mate children is said to be as many as his years. She asked 
General Murat, to present me and recommend me to FouchiS,' 
which he did with gre^t politeness, and the minister assured me, 
that he should be glad to see me at his hotel j which I much^ 
doubt. The last word Madame Louis said to me, in showing; 
me a princely crown richly set with diamonds, and given her by 
her father-iurlaw Napoleone, were, "Alas! grandeur is not 
always happiness, nor the most elev?ited the most fortunate lot,'* 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD, 69 

LETTER XVII. 

Pflrisy August 1805. 



MT LORD, 



THE arrival of the Pope in this country was certainly a 
grand epoch, not only in the history of the Revolution, but in 
the annals of Europe. The debates in the sacred college for and 
against this journey, and for and against his coronation of Buona- 
parte, are said to have been long as well as violent ; and only 
arranged according to the desires of Cardinal Fesch, by the 
means of four millions of livres, 166,000/, distributed a-propos 
among its pious members. Of this money, the Cardinals Mat- 
tei, Pamphili, Dugnani, Maury, Pignatelli, Roverella, Somaglia, 
Pacca, Brancadoro, Litta, Gabrielli, Spina, Despuig, and Galeffi, 
are said to have shared the greatest part ; and, from the most 
violent anti-Buonapartists, they instantly became the strenuous 
adherents of Napoleone the Fir^t ; who of course cannot be igno- 
rant of their real worth. 

The person entrusted by Buonaparte and Talleyrand to carry 
on at Rome the intrigue which sent Pius VII to cross the Alps, 
was Cardinal Fesch, brother of Madame Lastitia Buonaparte by 
the side of her mother, who, in a second marriage, chose a ped- 
lar of the name of Nicolo Fesch, for her husband. 

Joseph, Cardinal Fesch, was born at Ajaccio in Corsica, on the 
8th of March 1763, and was in his infancy received as a singing 
boy, (enfant de chxur) in a convent of his native place. In 
1782, whilst he was on a visit to some of his relations, in the 
island of Sardinia, being on a fishing party some distance from 
shore, he was, with his companions, captured by an Algerine 
felucca, and carried a captive to Algiers. Here he turned Mus- 
sulman, and until 1790 was a zealous believer In, and professor of, 
the Alcoran. In that year he found an opportunity to escape from 
Algiers, and to return to Ajacglo, when he abjured his renegacy, 
exchanged the Alcoran for the Bible, and In 1791 was made a 
constitutional curate, that is to say, a revolutionary Christian 
priest. In 1793, wlien even those were proscribed, he renounced 



IKI SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

the sacristy of his church for the bar of a tavern, where, during 
1794 and 1795, he gained a small capital by the number and 
liberality of his English customers. After the victories of his 
nephew Napoleone in Italy, during the following year, he was ad- 
vised to reassume the clerical habit ; and after Napoleone's pro- 
clamation of a First Consul, he was made Archbishop of Lybns. 
In 1802, Pius VII decorated him with the Roman purple ; and h© 
is now a pillar of the Roman faith,' in a fair way of seizing the 
Roman tiara. If letters from Rome can be depended upon, Car- 
dinal Fesch, in the name of the Emperor of the French, informed 
his Holiness the Pope, that he must either retire to a convent or 
travel to France, either abdicate his own sovereignty, or Inaugu- 
rate Napoleone the First a Sqvereign of France, Without the 
decision of the sacred college, effected in the manner already 
stated, the majority of the faithful believe that this Pontiff would 
have preferred obscurity to disgrace, 

While Joseph Fesch was a master of a tavern, he mairied the 
daughter of a tinker, by whom he had three children. This, 
marriage, according to the republican regulations, had only, 
been celebrated by the municipality at Ajaccio. Fesch, therefore, 
upon again entering the bosom of the church, left his municipal 
wife and children to shift for tliemselves, considering himself 
still, according to the canonical laws, a bachelor. But Madame 
Fesch, hearing in 1801 of her ci-devant husband's promotion, to 
the Archbishopric of Lyons, wrote to him for some succours, be- 
ing with her children reduced to great misery. Madame Lsetitia 
Buonapart« answered her letter, inclosing a draft of six hundred 
livres, 25/, informing her, that the same sum would be paid hei; 
every six months, as long as she continued with her chjldren to. re- 
side at Corsica; but that it would cease the instant she left that 
island. Either thinking herself not sufficiently paid for her dis- 
cretion, or enticed by some enemy of the Buonaparte family, she ar- 
rived secretly at Lyons in October last year, where she remained 
unknown until the awival of the Pope. On the first day his Holi- 
ness gave there his public benediction, she found means to piefcc 
the crowd, and to approach his pe^rson, when Cardinal Fesch was 
by bis side. Profiting by a moment's silence, she called oui^ 
loudly, throwing herself at his feet : " Holy Father ! I am the 
lawful wife of Cardinal Fesch, and these are our children ; he 



COURT GF,ST. CL017D. ft 

"Canhoti he dares not, deny this truth; Had- he behaved libef- 
HiWy to mci I should not have disturbed him in his present 
grandeur ; I supplicate you, Holf Father, not to restore me my 
husband, but to force him to provide for his wife and childrenj ac- 
cording to his present circumstances -^Matta-'^eUa e matta^ santh' 
wncr/?a</re^/- She is mad— she is mad-i^Holy Father,*' said the 
Cardinal ; and the good Pontiff ordered her to be taken eare qf, 
to prevent her fi-om doing herself or the children any mischief. 
She was, indeed^ taken care of) because nobody ever since heard 
•#1iat has become either of her op her children ; and as they have 
■not returned to Corsica, probably some snug retreat has been al- 
lotted them in France. 

' The purple was never disgraced by a greater libertine than Car- 
dinal Fesch : his. amours are numerous, and have often involved 
htm in disagreeable scrapes. He had in 1803 an unpleasant ad- 
venture at Lyons, which has since made his stay in that city but 
short. Having thrown his handkerchief at the wife of a manu- 
facturer of the name of Girot, she accepted it ; and gave him an 
appointment at her house, at a time in the evening, when her hus- 
band usually went to the play. His Eminence arrived in dis- 
^ise, and was received with open arms. But he was hardly 
•seated by her side, before the door of a closet was burst open, 
and his shoulders smarted from the lashes inflicted by -an offend'- 
ed husband. In vain did he mention his name and rank^ tliey 
rather increased than decreased the fury of Girot, who pretend- 
ed it was utterly impossible for a Cardinal and Archbishop to be 
Ihus overtaken "with" the wife of one of his flock ; at last Madame 
Girot proposed a pecuniary accommodation, which, after some 
opposition, was acceded to ; and his Eminence signed a bond for 
one hundred thousand livres, 4000/, upon condition that nothing 
should transpire of this intrigue— a high price enough for a sound 
drubbing. On the day when the bond was due, Girot and his- 
wife were both arrested by the police commissary Dubois (a 
brother of the prefect of police at Paris) accused of being con- 
nected with coiners, a capital crime at present in this country. 
In "a search made in their house, bad money to the amount of 
three thousand livres, 125/, was discovered ; which they had re- 
ceived the day before from a man who called himself a merchant 
from Paris, but whow^ a^police spy sent to entrap them. ;. After 



72 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

giving up the bond of the Cardinal, the Empefer graciously re- 
mitted the capital punishment, upon condition that they should 
be transported for life to Cayenne. 

This is the prelate, on whom Buonaparte intends to confer the 
Roman tiara, and to constitute a successor of St. Peter. It 
would not be the least remarkable event, in the beginning of the 
Temarkable nineteenth century, were we to witness the Papal 
throne occupied by a man, who, from a singing boy, became a 
renegado slave, from a Mussulman a constitutional curate ; from 
St tavern-keeper an arch-bishop ; from the son of a pedlar the 
uncle of an Emperor ; and from the husband of the daughter of 
a tinker, a member of the sacred college. 

His sister, Madame Lsetitia Buonaparte, presented him in 1 802 
with an elegant library, for which she had paid six hundred 
thousand livres, 25,000/; and his nephew Napoleone allows him 
a yearly pension double that amount. Besides his dignity as a 
prelate, his Eminence is ambassador from France at Rome, a 
Knight of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece, a grand of- 
ficer of the Legion of Honour, and a grand almoner of the Em- 
peror of the French. 

The Archbishop of Paris is now in his ninety-sixth year j and 
at his death. Cardinal Fesch is to be ttansferred to the see of this 
capital, in expectation of the triple crown, and the keys of St. 
Peter. 



LETTER XVIII. 

Fari»f August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THE amiable and accomplished Amelia-Frediirique, Princess 
Dowager of the late Electoral Prince Charles Louis of Baden, 
born a Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, has procured the Electoral 
House of Baden^ the singular honour of giving consorts to three 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 73 

reigning and sovereign Princes ; to an Emperor of Russia, to a 
King of Sweden, and to the Elector of Bavaria. Such a dis- 
tinction, and such alliances, called the attention of those at the 
head of our Revolution ; who, after attempting in vain to blow 
up hereditary thrones, by the aid of sans-culottes incendiaries, 
seated sans-culottes upon thrones, that they might degrade what 
was not yet ripe for destruction. 

Charles Frederic, the reigning Elector of Baden, is now neaf 
fourscore years of age. At this period of life, if any passions 
remain, avarice is more common than ambition ; because trea- 
sures may be hoarded without bustle, while activity is absolutely 
necessary to push forward to the goal of distinction. , Having be- 
stowed a new King on Tuscany, Buonaparte and Talleyrand also 
resolved to confer new Electors on Germany. A more advan- 
tageous fraternity could not be established between the innovators 
here, and their opposers in other countries, than by incorporating 
the grand father-in-law of so many Sovereigns with their own re- 
volutionary brotherhood ; to humble him by a new rank, and to 
disgrace him by indemnities obtained from their hands. An in^ 
trigue between our minister Talleyrand and the Baden minister 
•Edelsheim transformed the oldest Margrave of Germany into 
its youngest Elector ; and extended his dominions by the spoils 
obtained at the expense of the rightful owners. The invasion 
of the Baden territory in time of peace, and the seizure of the 
Duke of Enghien, though under the protection of the laws of 
nations and hospitality, must have soon convinced Baron Edel- 
sheim what return his friend Talleyrand expected : and that 
Buonaparte thought he had a natural right to insult, by his at- 
tacks, those he had dishonoured by his connexions. 

This minister. Baron Edelsheim, is half an illuminate, half a 
philosopher, half a politician, and half a revolutionist. He was, 
long before he was admitted into the council chamber of his 
Prince, half an atheist, half an intriguer, and half a spy, in the 
pay of Frederic the Great of Prussia. His entry upon tlie stage 
at Berlin, and particularly the first parts he was destined to act, 
was curious and extraordinary : whether he acquitted himself 
better in this Capacity than he has since in Ins political one, is not 
known. He was afterwards sent to this capital, to execute a corns- 

L 



■i4t SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

mission, of which he acquitted himself very ill ; exposing him- 
self rashly, without profit or service to his employer. Frederig 
II, dreading the tediousness of a proposed Congress at Augs- 
burgh, wished to send a private emissary to sound the King of 
France. For this purpose he chose Edelsheim as a person least 
liable to suspicion. The project of Frederic was to indemnify the 
King of Poland for his first losses, by robbing the ecclesiastical 
Princes of Germany. This Louis XV totally rejected; and 
Edelsheim returned with his answer to the Prussian Monarch, 
then atFreyberg. From thence he afterwards departed for Lon- 
don, made his communications, and was once again sent back to 
Paris, on pretence that he had left some of his travelling trunks 
there ; and the Bailli de Foulay, the ambassador of the Knights 
of Malta, being persuaded that the cabinet of Versailles was ef- 
fectually desirous of peace, was, as he had been before, the me- 
diator. The Bailli was deceived. The Duke de Choiseul, the 
then prime minister, indecently enough threw Edelsheim into 
the Bastille, in order to search or seize his papers ; which, how- 
ever, were secured elsewhere. Edelsheim was released on the 
morrow, but obliged to depart the kingdom by the way of Turin, 
as related by Frederic II, in his History of the Seven Years War. 
On his return he was disgraced, and continued so until 1778, 
when he again was used as emissary to various courts of Ger- 
miany. In 1786, the Elector of Baden sent him to Berlip, on the 
ascension of Frederic William II, as a complimentary envoy. 
This monarch, when he saw him, could not forbear laughing at 
the high wisdom of the court that selected such a personage for 
such an embassy, and of his own sagacity in accepting of it. He 
quitted the capital of Prussia as he came there, with an opinion 
of himself, that neither the royal smiles of contempt had altered 
or diminished. 

You see by this ziccount that Edelsheim has long been a parti- 
san of the pillage of Germany, called indemnities ; and long ha- 
bituated to affronts, as well as to plots. To all his other half-qua- 
lities, half-modesty (ban hardly be added, when he calls himself, 
or suffers himself to be called, " the Talleyrand of Carlsruhe." 
He accompanied his Prince last year to Mentz ; where this old 
Sovereign was not treated by Buonaparte in the most decorous 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 75 

or decent manner, being obliged to wait for hours in his anti- 
chamber, and afterwards stand during the levees, or in the draw- 
ing rooms of Napoleone or of his wife, without the oifer of a chair, 
or an invitation to sit down. It was here where, by a secret trea- 
ty, Buonaparte became the Sovereign of Baden, if sovereignty 
consists in the disposal of the financial and military resources of 
a state ; and they were agreed to be assigned over to him, when- 
ever he should deem it proper or necessary to invade the German 
Empire, in return for his protection against the Emperor of 
Germany, who can have no more interest than intent to attack a 
country so distant from his hereditary dominions, and whose 
Sovereign is besides the grandfather of the consort of his neax'est 
ajid best ally. 

Talleyrand often amused lumself at -Mentz with playing on 
the vanity and affected consequence of Edelsheim, who was de- 
lighted, if at any time our minister took him aside, or whispered 
to him as in confidence. One morning, at the assembly of the 
Elector Arch -Chancellor, where Edelsheim was creeping and 
cringing about him as usual, he laid hold of his arm, and walked 
with him to the upper part of the room. In a quarter of an hour 
they both joined the company, Edelsheim unusually puffed up 
with vanity. " I will lay any bet, gentlemen," said Talleyrand, 
" that you cannot, with all your united wits, guess the grand sub- 
ject of my conversation with the grand Baron Edelsheim." 
Without waiting for an answer, he continued : " As the Baron is 
a much older and more experienced traveller than myself, I asked 
him which, of all the countries he had visited, could boast the 
prettiest and kindest women. His reply was really very instruc- 
tive, and it would be a great pity if justice v/ere not done to his 
merit by its publicity. Here the Baron, red as a turkey-cock, 
and trembling with anger, interrupted — " His Excellency,*' said 
he, " is to-night in a humour to joke ; what he spoke of had 
nothing to do with women.'* " Nor with men, neither," retorted 
Talleyrand, going away. This anecdote Baron Dahlberg, the 
minister of the Elector of Baden to our court, had the frankness 
to relate at Madame Chapui's, as an evidence of Edeisheim's in- 
timacy with Talleyrand ; he only left out the latter part, 
and forgot to mention the tad grace with which this irn- 



76 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

pertinence of Talleyrand was received ; but this defect of 
memory Count de Beust, the envoy of the Elector Arch- 
Chancellor, kindly supplied. 

Baron Edelsheim is a great amateur of knighthoods. 
On days of great festivities his face is as it were illumi- 
nated with the lustre of his stars ; and the crosses on his coat 
conceal almost its original colour. Every petty Prince of 
Germany has dubbed him a chevalier ; but Emperors and 
Kings have not been so unanimous in distinguishing his desert, 
or in satisfying his desires. 

At Mentz, no prince or minister fawned more assiduously 
upon Buonapai'te, than this hero of chivalry. It could not 
escape notice, but need not have alarmed our great man, as 
was the case. The prefect of the palace was ordered to give 
authentic information concerning Eddsheim's moral and fio- 
litical character. He applied to the police commissary, who, 
within twenty hours, signed a declaration, affirming that Edel- 
sheim was the most inoffensive and least dangerous of all 
imbecile creatures that ever entered the cabinet of a Prince ; 
that he had never drawn a sword, worn a dagger, or fired a 
pistol in his life ; that the inquiries about his real character 
were sneered at in every part of the Electorate ; as no where 
they allowed him common sense, much less a character j 
all blamed his presumption, but none defended his capacity. 

After the perusal of this report, Buonaparte asked Tal- 
leyrand, " what can Edelsheim mean by his troublesome assi- 
duities ? does he want any indemnities, or does he wish me to 
make him a German Prince? Can he have the impudence 
to hope that I should appoint him a tribune, a legislator, or 
a senator in France, or that I would give him a place in my 
council of state ?" " No such thing," answered the minister ; 
" did not your majesty condescend to notice, at the lastfSte, 
that this eclipsed moon was encompassed in a firmament of 
stars. You would, Sire, make him the happiest of mortals, 
were you to nominate him a member of your Legion of Honour.*' 
" Does he want nothing else ?" said Napoleone, as if relieved at 
once from an oppressive burden : " write to my chancellor of 
the Legion of Honour, Lacepede, to send him a patent, and do 
you inform him of this favour." 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 77 

It is reported at Carlsruhe, the capital of Baden, that Baron 
Edelsheim has composed his own epitaph, in which he claims 
immortality, because under his ministry the Margravate of Baden 
was elevated into an Electorate 1 1 ! 



LETTER XIX. 

Paris J August 1805, 



MY LORD, 



THE sensation that the arrival of the Pope in this country- 
caused among the lower classes of people cannot be expressed j 
and if expressed, would not be believed. I am sorry, howeverj 
to say that, instead of improving their morals, or increasing 
their faith, this journey has shaken both morality and religion to 
their foundation. 

According to our religious notions, as you must know, the 
Roman Pontiff is the vicar of Christ, and infallible ; he can 
never err. The Atheists of the National Convention, and the 
Theophilanthropists of the Directory, not only denied his demi- 
divinity, but transformed him into a satyr ; and in pretending to 
tear the veil of superstition, annihilated all belief in a God. 
The ignorant part of our nation, which, as every where else, 
constitutes the majority, witnessing the impunity and prosperity 
of crime, and bestowing on the Almighty the passions of mor- 
tals, first doubted of his omnipotence ih not crushing guilt, and 
afterwards of his existence, in not exterminating the blasphe- 
mers from among the living. Feeling, however, the want of 
consolation in their misfortunes here, and hope of a reward 
hereafter for unmei-ited suffering upon earth, they all hailed, as a 
blessing, the restoration of Christianity ; and by this Jiolitical 
act Buonaparte gained more adherents than by all hJLs victories 
he had procured admirers. 



78 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Buonaparte's character, his good and his bad qualities, his 
talents and his crimes, are too recent and too notorious to re- 
quire description. Should he continue successful, and be at- 
tended by fortune to his grave, future ages may perhaps hail 
him a hero and a great man ; but by his contemporaries it will 
always be doubtful, whether mankind has not suffered more 
from his ambition and cruelties, than benefited by his services. 
Had he satisfied himself by continuing the chief magistrate of a 
commonwealth, or, if he judged that a monarchical government 
alone was suitable to the spirit of this country, had he recalled 
our legitimate King, he would have occupied a principal, if not 
the first, place in the history of France ; a place much more 
exalted than he can ever expect to fill as an Emperor of the 
French : let his prosperity be ever so uninterrupted, he cannot 
be mentioned but as an usurper ; an appellation never exciting 
esteem, frequently inspiring contempt, and always odious. 

The crime of usurpation is the greatest and most enormous a 
subject can perpetrate ; but what epithet can there be given to 
him, who, to preserve an authority unlawfully acquired, asso- 
ciates in his guilt a supreme Pontiff, whom the multitude is 
accustomed to reverence as the representative of their God, but 
who, by this act of scandal and sacrilege, descends to a level 
"with the most culpable of men ? I have heard, not only in this 
city, but in villages, where sincerity is more frequent than cor- 
ruption, and where hypocrites are as little known as infidels, 
these remariis made by the people : " Can the real vicar of 
Christ, by his inauguration, commit the double injustice of de- 
priving the legitimate owner of his rights, and of bestowing as a 
sacred donation what belongs to another, and what he has no 
power, no authority to dispose of? Can Pius VII confer on 
Napoleone the First what belongs to Louis XVIII ? Would 
Jesus Christ, if upon earth, have acted thus ? would his imme- 
diate successors, the apostles, not have preferred the suffering 
of martyrdom to the commission of any injury ? If the present 
Roman Pontiff acts differently to what his master and prede- 
cessors would have done, can he be the vicar of our Saviour ?" 
These, and many similar reflections, the common people have 
made, and make yet ; the step from doubt to disbelief is but 
short} and those brought up in the Roman Catholic religion, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 79 

who hesitate about believing Pius VII to be the vicar of Christ, 
will soon remember the precepts of atheists and free-thinkers, 
and believe that Christ is not the Son of God, and that a God is 
only the invention of fear. 

The fact is, that by the Pope's performance of the coronation 
of an Emperor of the French, a religious as well as a political 
revolution was effected ; and the usurper in power, whatever his 
creed may be, will hereafter, without much difficulty, force it 
on his slaves. You may, perhaps, object, that Pius VII, in his 
official account to the sacred college of his journey to France, 
speaks with enthusiasm of the Catholicism of the French peo- 
ple. But did not the Goddess of Reason, did not Robespierre, 
as an high priest of a Supreme Being, speak as highly of their 
sectaries? Read the Moniteur of 1793 and 1794, and you will 
be convinced of the truth of this assertion. They, like the Pope, 
spoke of what they saw ; and they, like him, did not see an 
individual who was not instructed how to perform his part, so as 
to give satisfaction to him whom he was to please, and to those 
who employed him. As you have attended to the history of our 
Revolution, you have found it in great part a cruel masquerade, 
where none but the unfortunate Louis XVI appeared in his na- 
tive and natural character, and without a mask. 

The countenance of Pius VII is placid and benign, and a kind 
of calmness and tranquillity pervades his address and manners, 
which are, however, far from being easy or elegant. The 
crowds that he must have been accustomed to see, since his pre- 
sent elevation, have not lessened a timidity, the consequence of 
early seclusion. Nothing troubled him more than the numer- 
6u8 deputations of our Senate, Legislative Body, Tribunate, Na- 
tional Institute, Tribunals, 8cc. that teased him on every occasion. 
He never was suspected of any vices, but all his virtues are ne- 
gative ; and his best quality is, not to do good, but to prevent 
evil. His piety is sincere and unaffected, and it is not difficult 
to perceive that he has been more accustomed to address his 
God than to converse with men. He is no where so well in his 
place, as before the altar ; when imploring the blessings of Pro- 
vidence on his audience, he speaks with confidence, as to a friend 
to whom his purity is known, and who is accustomed to listen 
favourably to bis prayers. He is zealous, but not fanatical, but 



8<y SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

equally superstitious as devout. His closet was Crowded with 
relics, rosaries, 8cc. but there he passed generally eight hours of 
the twenty-four upon his knees, in prayer and meditation. He 
often inflicted on himself mortifications, and observed fast-days, 
and kept his vows with religious strictness. 

None of the promises made him by Cardinal Fesch, in the 
name of Napoleone the First, were performed, but were put off 
yntil a general pacification. He was promised indemnity for 
Avignon, Bologna, Ferrara, and Ravenna; the ancient supre- 
macy and pecuniary contributions of the Gallican church, and 
the restoration of certain religious orders, both in France and 
Italy ; but notwithstanding his own representations, and the ac- 
tivity of his Cardinal Caprara, nothing was decided, though 
nothing was refused. 

By some means or other he was become perfectly acquainted 
with the crimes and vices of most of our public functionaries. 
Talleyrand was surprised, when Cardinal Caprara explained to 
him th6 reason why the Pope refused to admit some persons to his 
presence ; and why he wished others even not to be of the party, 
when he accepted of the invitations of Buonaparte and his wife to 
their private societies. Many are, however, of opinion, that 
Talleyrand, from malignity or revenge, often heightened and 
confirmed his Holiness's aversion. This was at least once the 
case, with regard to De Lalande. When Duroc inquired the 
cause of the Pope's displeasure against this astronomer, and 
hinted that it would be very agreeable to the Emperor, were his 
Holiness to permit him the honour of prostrating himself, he 
was answered, that men of talents and learning would always be 
welcome to approach his person ; that he pitied the errors, and 
prayed for the conversion, of this savant, but Was neither dis- 
pleased nor offended with him. Talleyrand, when informed of 
the Pope's answer, accused Cardinal Caprara of having misin- 
terpreted his master's communications ; aiid this prelate, in his 
turn, censured our minister's bad memory. 

You must have read, that this De Lalandc is regarded in France 
as the first astronomer of Europe, and hailed as the high priest 
of atheists ; he is said to be the author of a shockingly blasphe- 
mous work, called " The Bible of a People who acknowledge no 
God." He imfilored the ferocious Robespierre to honour the 



' COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 81 

heavens, by bestowing- on a new planet, pretended to be discover- 
ed, his ci-devant Christian name, Maximilian. In a letter of con- 
gratulation to Buonaparte, on the occasion of his present eleva- 
tion, he also i?nJilored him to honour the God of the Christians, 
by styling himself Jesus Christ the First, Emperor of the French, 
instead o^f Napoleone the First. But it was not his known im- 
piety that made Talleyrand wish tor exclude him from insulting 
with his presence a Chi'istian Pontiff. In the summer of 1799, 
when the minister was in a momentary disgrace, De Lalandte was 
at the head of those who imputed to his treachery, corruption, and 
machinations, all the evils France then suffered, both from exter- 
nal enemies and internal factions. If Talleyrand has justly been 
reproached for soon forgetting good offices and services done him, 
nobody ever denied that he has the best recollection in the world 
of offences or attacks, and that he is as revengeful as unforgiving. 

The only one of our great men, whom Pius VII remaiTied ob- 
stinate and inflexible in not receiving, was the senator and mini- 
ster of police, Fouchd. As his Holiness was not so particular 
with regard to other persons who, like Fouche, were both apo- 
state priests, and regicide subjects, the following is reported to 
be the cause of his aversion and obduracy. 

In November 1793, the remains of a ^vretch of the nalne of 
Challiers, justly called, for his atrocities, the Marat of Lyoifts'j 
were ordered by Fouche, then a representative of the people in 
that city, to be produced and publicly Avorshipped ; and under 
his particular auspices, a grand fete was performed to the 
memory of this republican martyr, who had been executed as an 
assassin. As pai't of this impious ceremony, an ass covered with 
a Bishop's vestments, having on his head a mitre, and the volunies 
of holy writ tied to his tail, paraded the streets. The Remains 
of Challiers were then burnt, and thie ashes distributed among 
his adorers ; while the books were also consumed, and the ashes 
scattered in the wind. Fouche proposed, after giving the ass 
some water to drink in a sacred chalice, to terminate the festivity 
of the day by murdering all the prisoners, amounting to scveli 
thousand five hundred ; but a sudden storm prevented the exe- 
cution of this diabolical proposition, and dispersed the sacrilegi- 
ous congregation. 

- M 



82 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

LETTER XX. 

Paris, August 1 805, 

MY LORD, 

THOUGH all the Buonapartes were great favourites with Pius 
VII, Madame Lsetitia, their mother, had a visible preference. In 
her apartments he seemed most pleased to meet Xht. family parties, 
as they were called, because to them, except the Buonapartes, 
none but a few select favourites were invited; a distinction as 
much wished for and envied as any other court honour. After 
the Pope had fixed the evening he would appear among them, 
Duroc made out a list, under the dictates of Napoleone, of the 
chosen few destined to partake of the blessing of his Holiness's 
presence ; this list was merely pro forma, or as a compliment, 
laid before him ; and after his tacit approbation, the individuals 
were informed, from the first chambeiiain's office, that they would 
be honoured Avith admittance at such an hour, to such a company, 
and in such an apartment. Tlie dress in which they were to ap- 
pear was also prescribed. The parties usually met at six o'clock 
in the evening : on the Pope's entrance, all persons of both sexes 
kneeled to receive his blessing. Tea, ice, liqueurs, and confec- 
tionary, were then served. In the place of honour were three 
elevated elbow chairs, and his Holiness was seated between the 
Emperor and Empress, and seldom spoke to any one, to whom 
Napoleone did not previously address the word. The exploits of 
Buonaparte, particularly his caiiipaigns in Egypt, were the chief 
subjects of conversation. Before eight o'clock the Pope always 
retired; distributing his blessing to the kneeling audience, as on 
his entry. When he was gone, card tables were brought in, and 
play was permitted. Dui'oc received his master's orders, how to 
distribute the places at the different tables ; what .games were to 
be played, and the amount of the sums to be staked. These were 
usually trifling and small, compared to what is daily risked in our 
fashionable circles. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 83 

Often, after the Pope had returned to his own rooms, Madame 
Lsetitia Buonaparte was admitted to assist at his private pi'ayers. 
This lady, whose intrigues and gallantry are proverbial in Corsica, 
has, now that she is old, as is generally the case, turned devotee ; 
and is surrounded by hypocrites and impostors, who, under the 
mask of sanctity, deceive and plunder her. Her anti-chambers 
are always full of priests : and her closet and bed-room are crowd- 
ed with relics, which she collected during her journey to Italy 
last year. She might, if she chose, establish a Catholic museum, 
and furnish it with a more curious collection in its sort, than any 
of our other museums contain. Of all the saints in our calendar, 
there is not one, of any notoriety, who has not supplied her with a 
fingei', a toe, or some other part ; or with a piece of a shirt, a 
handkerchief, a sandal, or a winding-sheet. Even a bit of a pair 
of breeches, said to have belonged to St. Mathurin, whom many 
think was a sans-culotte, obtain her adoration on certain occasions. 
As none of her children have yet arrived at the same height 
of faith as herself, she has, in her will, bequeathed to the Pope all 
her relics, together with eight hundred and seventy-nine prayer- 
books, and four hundred and forty -six bibles, either in manuscript 
or of different editions. Her favourite breviary, used only on 
great solemnities, was presented to her by Cardinal Maury at 
Rome, and belonged, as it is said, formerly to St.-Fran9ois, whose 
commentary, written with his own hand, fill the margins ; though 
many, who with me adore him as a saint, doubt whether he could 
either read or write. 

Not long ago she made, as she thought, an exceedingly valua- 
ble acquisition. A priest arrived direct from the holy city of 
Jerusalem, well recommended by the inhabitants of the convents 
there, with whom he pretended to have passed his youth. After 
prostrating himself before the Pope, he waited on Madame Lsti- 
tia Buonaparte. He told her that he had brought with him from 
Syria the famous relic, the shoulder bone of St. John the Baptist ; 
but that being in want of money for his voyage, he borrowed upon 
it, from a Grecian Bishop in Montenegra, two hundred Louis 
d'ors. This sum, and one hundred Louis d'ors besides, was im- 
mediately given him ; and within three months, for a large sum 
in addition to those advanced, this precious relic was in Madame 
Lsetitia's possession. 



84 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Notwithstanding this lady's care, not to engage in her service 
any person of either sex, who cannot produce, not a certificate of 
civism from the municipality, as was formerly the case, but a 
certificate of Christianity, and a billet of confession signed by the 
curate of the parish, she had often been robbed, and the robbers 
had made particularly free with those relics which were set in gold 
or in diamonds. She accused her daughter, the Princess Borghese, 
who often rallies the devotion of her mamma, and who is more 
an amateur of the living than of the dead, of having played her 
these tricks. The princess informed Napoleone of her mother's 
losses, as well as of her own innocence, and asked him to apply 
to the police to find out the thief, who no doubt was one of the 
pious rogues who almost devoured their mother. 

On the next day Napoleone invited Madame Lxtitia to dinner, 
and Fpuche had orders to make a strict search, during her 
absence, among the persons composing her household. Though 
he on this occasion did not find what he was looking for, he made 
a discovery, which very much mortified Madame Lsetitia, 

Her first chambermaid, Rosina Gaglini, possessed both her 
esteem and confidence, and had been sent for purposely from 
Ajaccio in Corsica, on account of her general renown for great 
piety, and a report that she was an exclusive favourite with the 
Virgin Mary, by whose interference she had even performed, it 
was said, some miracles ; such as restoring stolen goods, runaway 
cattle, lost children, and procuring prizes in the lottery. Rosina 
was as relic mad as her mistress ; and, as she had no means to 
procure them otherwise, she determined to partake of her lady's, 
by cutting off a small part of each relic, of Madame Lstitia's prin- 
cipal saints. These precious morceaux she placed in a box, upon 
which she kneeled to say her prayers during the day ; and which, 
for a mortification, served her as a pillow during the night. 
Upon each of the sacred bits she had afiixed a label, with the 
name of the saint it belonged to, which occasioned the disclosure. 

When Madame Lsetitia heard of this pious theft, she insisted on 
having the culprit immediately and severely punished ; and though 
the Princess Borghese, as the innocent cause of poor Rosina's 
misfortune, interfered, and Rosina herself promised never more 
to plunder saints, she was without mercy turned away ; and even 
denied money sufficient to carry her back to Corsica. Had she 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 85 

made free with Madame Lsetitia's plate or wardrobe, there is no 
doubt but that she had been forgiven; but to presume to share 
with her those sacred supports on her way to paradise was a more 
unpardonable act, with a devotee, than to steal from a lover the 
portrait of an adored mistress. 

In the meantime the police was upon the alert, to discover the 
person whom they suspected of having stolen the relics for the 
diamonds, and not the diamonds for the relics. Among our 
fashionable and new saints, surprising as you may think it, Ma- 
dame de Genlis holds a distinguished place ; and she too is an 
amateur.) and collector of relics in proportion to her means ; and 
with her were found those missed by Madame Lstitia. Being 
asked to give up the name of him from wliom she had purchased 
them, she mentioned Abbe Saladin, the pretended priest from 
Jerusalem. He in his turn -was questioned, and by his answers 
gave rise to suspicion that he himself was the thief. The person 
of whom he pretended to have bought them was not to be found, 
nor was any one of such a description remembered to have been 
seen any where. On being carried to prison, he claimed the pro- 
tection of Madame Lxtitia, and produced a letter, in which this 
lady had promised him a bishopric either in France or in Italy. 
When she was informed of his situation, she applied to her son 
Napoleone for his liberty ; urging, that a priest, who from Jeru- 
salem had brought with him to Europe such an extraordinary re- 
lic as the shoulder of St. John, could not be culpable. 

Abbe Saladin had been examined by Real; who concluded, 
from the accent and perfection with which he spoke the French 
language, that he was some French adventurer, who had imposed 
on the credulity and superstition of Madame Lietitia ; and there- 
fore threatened him with the rack if he did not confess the truth. 
He continued however in his story, and was going to be released 
upon an order from the Emperor, when a gens-d'armes recog- 
nized him, as a person who eight years before had, under the 
name of Lanoue, been condemned for theft and forgery to the 
galleys; from whence he had made his escape. Finding himself 
discovered, he avowed every thing. He said he had served in 
Egypt, in the guides of Buonaparte, but deserted to the Turks, 
and_ turned Mussulman, but afterwards returned to the bosom of 
the church at Jerusalem. There he persuaded the friare, that he 



86 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

had been a pviest, and obtained the certificates which introduced 
him to the Pope, and to the Emperor's mother; from whom he 
had received twelve thousand livres, 5001. for part of the jaw-bone 
of a whale, which he had sold her for the shoulder bone of a saint. 
As the police believes the certificates he has produced to be also 
forged, he is detained in prison, until an answer arrives from our 
consul in Syria. 

Madame Lsetitia did not resign without tears the relic he had 
sold her; and there is reason to believe that many other pieces 
of her collections, worshipped by her as remains of saints, are 
equally genuine as this shoulder bone of St. John. 



LETTER XXI. 

Paris, August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THAT the population of this capital has, since the Revolution, 
decreased near two hundred thousand souls, is not to be lamented. 
This focus of corruption and profligacy is still too populous, 
though the inhabitants do not amount to six hundred thousand ; 
for I am well persuaded that more crimes and excesses of every 
description are committed here in one year than are perpetrated 
in the same period of time in all other European capitals put to- 
gether. From not reading in our newspapers, as we do in yours 
of the robberies, murders and frauds discovered and punished, 
you may perhaps be inclined to suppose my assertion erroneous 
or exaggerated; but it is the policy of our present government to 
labour as much as possible in the dark; that is to say, to prevent, 
where it can be clone, all publicity of any thing directly or indi- 
rectly tending to inculpate it, of oppression, tyranny, or even 
negligence; and to conceal the immorality of the people so nearly 
connected with its own immoral power. It is true, that many 
vices and crimes here, as well as every where else, are unavoid- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 87 

able, and the natural consequences of corruption; and might be 
promulgated therefore, without attaching any reproach to our 
rulers ; but they are so accustomed to the mystery adherent to 
tyranny, that even the most unimportant law-suit, uninteresting 
intrigue, elopement, or divorce, is never allowed to be mentioned 
in our journals, without a previous permission from the prefect of 
police, who very seldom grants it. 

Most of the enormities now deplored in this country are the 
consequence of moral and religious licentiousness that has suc- 
ceeded to political anarchy, or rather were produced by it, and 
survive it. Add to this the numerous examples of the impunity 
of guilt, prosperity of infamy, misery of honesty, and sufferings of 
virtue ; and you will not think it surprising that, notwithstanding 
half a million of spies, our roads and streets are covered with 
robbers and assassins, and our scaffolds with victims. 

The undeniable truth, that this city alone is watched by one 
hundred thousand spies (so that when in company with six 
persons, one has reason to dread the presence of one spy) pro- 
claims at once the morality of the governors and that of the go- 
verned : were the former just, and the latter good, this mass of 
vileness would never be employed, or, if employed, wickedness 
would expire for want of fuel, and the hydra of tyranny perish by 
its own pestilential breath. 

According to the official registers published by Manuel in 1792, 
the number of spies all over France, during the reign of Louis 
XVI, were nineteen thousand three hundred (five thousand less 
than under Louis XV), and of this number six thousand were 
distributed in Paris, and in a circle of four leagues around it, 
including Versailles. You will undoubtedly ask me, even allow- 
ing for our extension of territory, what can be the cause of this 
disproportionate increase of mistrust and depravity ? I will explain 
it, as far as my abilities admit, according to the opinions of others 
compared with my own remarks. 

When factions usurped the supi'emacy of the kings, vigilance 
augmented with insecurity ; and almost every body who was not 
an opposer, who refused being an accomplice, or feared to be a 
victim, was obliged to serve as an informer, and vilify himself by 
becoming a spy. The rapidity with which parties followed and 
destroyed each other made the criminals as numerous as the 



B8 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

sufferings of honour and loyalty innumerable ; and, I am sorry to 
say, few persons exist in my degraded country, vhose firmness 
and constancy were proofs against repeated torments and trials, 
and who, to preserve their lives, did not renounce their principles 
and probity. 

Under the reign of Robespierre and of the Committee of Pub- 
lic Safety, every member of government, of the clubs, of the tri- 
bunals, and of the communes, had his private spies ; but no regu- 
lar register was kept of their exact number. Under the Directory 
a police minister was nominated, and a police office established. 
According to the declaration of the police minister, Cochon, in 
1797, the spies, who where then regularly paid, amounted to one 
hundred and fifty thousand; and of these, thirty thousand did duty 
in this capital. How many they were in 1799, when Fouche, for 
the first time, was appointed a chief of the department of police, 
is not known; but suppose them doubled within two years; their 
increase since is nevertheless immense, considering that France 
has enjoyed upwards of four years uninterrupted continental peace, 
and has not been exposed to any internal convulsions, during the 
same period. 

You may, perhaps, object that France is not rich enough 
to keep up as numerous an army of spies as of soldiers ; because 
the expense of the former must be triple the amount of the latter. 
Were all these spies, now called police agents, or agents of the 
secret police, paid regular salaries, your objection would stand: 
but most of them have no other reward than the protection of the 
police ; being employed in gambling-houses, in coffee-houses, in 
taverns, at the theatres, in the public gardens, in lottery offices, at 
pawn-brokers, in brothels, and in bathing-houses, where the pro- 
prietors or masters of these establishments pay them. They re- 
ceive nothing from the police, but when they are enabled to make 
any great discoveries ; those who have been robbed or defrauded, 
and to whom they have been serviceable, are indeed obliged to 
present them with some douceur, fixed by the police at the rate 
of the value recovered; but such occurrences are merely acci- 
dental. To these are to bo added all individuals of either sex, 
who by the law are obliged to obtain from the police licences to 
exercise their trade; as pedlars, tinkers, mastei's of puppet shows, 
wild beasts, &c. These, on receiving their passes, inscribe 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 89 

themselves, and take the oaths as spies ; and are forced to send in 
their regular reports of what they hear or see. Prostitutes, who, 
all over this country, are under the necessity of paying for regu- 
lar licenses, are obliged also to give information, from time to 
time, to the nearest police commissary of what they observe or 
what they know respecting their visitors, neighbours, &c. The 
number of unfortunate woman of this description, who had taken 
out licenses during the year 12, or from September 1803 to Sep- 
tember 1804, is officially known to have amounted to two hundred 
and twenty thousand, o£ whom /briy thousand were emfiloyed by the 
armies. 

It is no secret that Napoleone Buonaparte has his secret spies 
upon his wife, his brothers, his sisters, his ministers, senators, 
and other public functionaries, and also upon his public spies. 
These are all under his own immediate control, and that of Du- 
roc, who does the duty of his private police minister, and in 
whom he confides more than even in the members of his own 
family. In imitation of their master, each of the other Buona- 
partes, and each of the ministers, have their individual spies, and 
are watched in their turn by the spies of their secretaries, clerks, 
&c. This infamous custom of espionage goes ad ijijinitum, and 
appertains almost to the establishment and to the suite of each 
man in place ; who does not think himself secure a moment, if he 
remains in ignorance of the transactions of his rivals, as well as 
of those of his equals and superiors. 

Fouche and Talleyrand are reported to have disagreed before 
Buonaparte, on some subject or other, which is frequently the 
case. The former, offended at some doubts thrown out about his 
intelligence, said to the latter, " I am so well served, that I can 
tell you the name of every man or woman you have conversed 
with, both yesterday and to-day ; where you saw them, and how 
long you remained with them, or they with you." — i" If such 
common-place espionage evinces any merit," retorted Talleyrand, 
" I am even here your superior ; because I know, not only what 
has already passed with you, and in your house, but what is to 
pass hereafter. 1 can inform you of every dish you had for your 
dinners this week ; who provided these dinners, and who is expect- 
ed to provide your meats to-morrow, and the day after. I can 
whisper you, in confidence^ who slept with Madame Fouch6 last 

N 



90 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

night, and who has an appointment with her to-night."— Here 
Buonaparte interrupted them, in his usual dignified language: 
" Hold both your tongues ; you are both great rogues, but I am 
at a loss to decide which is the greatest." Without uttering a 
single syllable, Talleyrand made a profound reverence to Fouche. 
Buonaparte smiled, and advised them to live upon good terms, if 
they were desirous of keeping their places. 

A man of the name of Ducroux, who, under Robespierre, had 
from a barber been made a general, and afterwards broken for his 
ignorance, was engaged by Buonaparte, as a private spy upon 
Fouche, who employed him in the same capacity upon Buona- 
parte. His reports were always written, and delivered in person 
into the hands both of the Emperor and of his minister. One 
morning, he by mistake gave to Buonaparte the report of him, 
instead of that intended for him. Buonaparte began to read : 
" Yesterday at nine o'clock, the Emperor acted the complete part 
of a madman ; he swore, stamped, kicked, foamed, roared," — here 
poor Ducroux threw himself at Buonaparte's feet, and called for 
mercy, for the terrible blunder he had committed. " For whom," 
asked Buonaparte, " did you intend this treasonable correspond- 
ence ? — I suppose it is composed for some English or Russian 
agent, for Pitt or for Marcoff. How long have you conspired with 
my enemies, and where are your accomplices?" "For God's sake 
hear me. Sire," prayed Ducroux. " Your Majesty's enemies 
have always been mine. The report is for one of your best friends; 
but were I to mention his name, he will ruin me."—" Speak out, 
or you die !" vociferated Buonaparte. " Well, Sire, it is for 
Fouche — for nobody else but Fouche." Buonaparte then rang 
the bell for Duroc, whom he ordered to see Ducroux shut up in 
a dungeon, and afterwards to send for Fouche. The minister 
denied all knowledge of Ducroux, who, after undergoing several 
torrtures, expiated his blunder upon the rack. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 91 

LETTER XXH. 

Parisy August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THE Pope, during his stay here, rose regularly every morning 
at five o'clock, and went to bed every night before ten. The first 
hours of the day he passed in prayers, breakfasted after the mass 
was over, transacted business till one, and dined at two. Between 
three or four he took his siesta, or nap; afterwards he attended 
the vespers, and when they were over, he parsed an hour with the 
Buonapartes, or admitted to his presence some members of the 
clergy. The day was concluded, as it was begun, with some 
hours of devotion. 

Had Pius VII possessed the character of a Pius VI, he would 
never have crossed the Alps ; or had he been gifted with the 
spirit and talents of Sextus V, or Leo X, he would never have 
entered France to crown Buonaparte, without previously stipulat- 
ing for himself, that he should be put into possession of the sove- 
reignty of Italy. You can form no idea what great stress was 
laid on this act of his Holiness, by the Buonaparte family, and 
what sacrifices were destined to be made, had any serious and ob- 
stinate resistance been apprehended. Threats were indeed em- 
ployed personally against the Pope, and bribes distributed to the 
refractory ittembers of the sacred college ; but it was no secret, 
either here or at Milan, that Cardinal Fesch had carte blanche 
with regard to the restoration of all provinces seized, since the 
war, from the Holy See, or full territorial indemnities in their 
place, at the expense of Naples and Tuscany : and indeed, what- 
ever the Roman Pontiff has lost in Italy, had been taken from 
him by Buonaparte alone; and the apparent generosity, which 
policy and ambition required, would, therefore, have merely been 
an act of justice. Confiding foolishly in the honour and rectitude 
of Napoleone, without any other security than the assertion of 
Fesch, Pius VII, Avithin a fortnight's stay in France, found the 
great difference between the promises held out to him, when re- 



92 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

siding as a Sovereign at Rome, and their accomplishment, when 
he had so far forgotten himself, and his sacred dignity, as to in- 
habit as a guest the castle of the Thuileries. 

Pius VII mentioned, the day after his arrival at Fontainebleau, 
that it would be a gratification to his own subjects, were he ena- 
bled to communicate to them the restoration of the former eccle- 
siastical domains, as a free gift of the Emperor of the French, at 
their jBrst conference ; as they would then be as well convinced of 
Napoleone's good/aith, as he was himself. In answer, his Holi- 
ness was informed, that the Emperor was unprepared then to 
discuss political subjects, being totally occupied with the thoughts 
how to entertain worthily his high visitor, and to acknowledge be- 
comingly the gi'eat honour done, and the great happiness confer- 
red on him by such ft visit. As soon as the ceremony of the co- 
ronation was over, every thing, he hoped f would be ai'ranged to the 
reciprocal satisfaction of both parties. 

About the middle of last December, Buonaparte was again 
asked to fix a day, when the points of negotiation between him 
and the Pope could be discussed and settled. Cardinal Caprara, 
who made this demand, was referred to Talleyrand, who denied 
having yet any instructions, though in daily expectation of them. 
Thus the time went on until February, when Buonaparte informed 
the Pope of his determination to assume the crown of Italy ; and 
of some new changes necessary, in consequence, on the other side 
of the Alps. 

Either seduced by caresses, or blinded by his unaccountable 
partiality for Buonaparte, Pius VII, if left to himself, would not 
only have renounced all his former claims, but probably have 
made new sacrifices to this idol of his infatuation. Fortunately 
his counsellors were wiser and less deluded ; otherwise the re- 
maining patrimony of St. Peter might now have constituted a 
part of Napoleone's inheritance in Italy. " Am I not, Holy Fa- 
ther 1" exclaimed the Emperor frequently, " your son, the work 
of your hand ? and if the pages of history assign me any glory, 
must it not be shared with you ? or rather, do you not share it 
with me ? any thing that impedes my successes, or makes the con- 
tinuance of my power uncertain, or hazardous, reflects on you, 
and is dangerous to you. With me you will shine or be obscured, 
rise or fall. Could you therefore hesitate (were I to demonstrate 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 93 

to you the necessity of such a measure) to remove the Papal See 
to Avignon, where it formerly was, and continued for centuries, 
and to enlarge the limits of my kingdom of Italy, with the eccle- 
siastical states? Can you believe my thi'one at Milan safe, as long- 
as it is not the sole throne of Italy ? Do you expect to govern at 
Rome, when I cease to reign at Milan ? No ! Holy Father 1 the 
Pontiff who placed the crown on my head, should it be shaken, 
will fall to rise no more." If what Cardinal Caprara said can be 
depended upon, Buonaparte frequently used to intimidate or flat- 
ter the Pope in this manner. 

The representations of Cardinal Caprara changed Napoleone's 
first intention of being again crowned by the Pope, as a King of 
Italy. His crafty Eminence observed, that, according to the Em- 
peror's own declaration, it was not intended that the crowns of 
France and Italy should continue united. But were he to cede 
one supremacy confirmed by the sacred hands of a Pontiff, the 
partisans of the Bourbons, or the factions in France, would then 
take advantage to diminish, in the opinion of the people, his right 
and the sacredness of his Holiness, and perhaps make even the 
crown of the French empire unstable. He did not deny that 
Charlemagne was crowned by a Pontiff in Italy, but this cere- 
mony was performed at Rome, where that Prince was proclaimed 
an Emperor of the Holy Roman and German Empire, as well as 
a King of Lombai'dy and Italy. Might not circumstances turn 
out so favourably for Napoleone the First, that he also might be 
inaugurated an Emperor of the Germans, as well as of the French? 
This last compliment, or firophecy, as Buonaparte's courtiers call 
it (what a prophet a Caprara!) had the desired effect, as it flattered 
equally Napoleone's ambition and vanity. For fear, however, 
that Talleyrand and other anti-catholic counsellors, who wanted 
him to consider the Pope merely as his first almoner, and to treat 
him as all other persons of his household, his Eminence sent his 
Holiness as soon as possible packing for Rome. Though I am 
neither a cardinal nor a prophet, should you and I live twenty 
years longer, and the other Continental Sovereigns not alter their 
present incomprehensible conduct, I can without any risk predict, 
that we shall see Rome salute the second Charlemagne an Em- 
peror of the Holy Roman Empire ; if before that time death does 
not put a period to his encroachments and gigantic plans. 



M SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

LETTER XXHL 

PariSf August 1805. 

MY LORD, 

NO Sovereigns have, since the Revolution, displayed more gran- 
deur of soul, and evinced more firmness of character, than the pre- 
sent King and Queen of Naples. Encomjiassed by a revolutionary 
volcano, more dangerous than the physical one ; though disturbed 
at home, and defeated abroad, they have neither been disgraced nor 
dishonoured. They have, indeed, with all other Italian princes, 
suffered territorial and pecuniary losses ; but these w^ere not yielded 
through cowardice or treachery, but enforced by an absolute neces- 
sity, the consequence of the desertion or inefficacy of allies. 

But their Sicilian Majesties have been careful, as much as they 
were able, to exclude from their councils both German illuminati 
and Italian philosophers. Their principal minister, Chevalier Acton, 
has proved himself worthy of the confidence with which his Sove- 
reigns have honoured him, and of the hatred with which he has 
been honoured by all revolutionists — ^the natural and irreconcileable 
enemies of all legitimate sovereignty. 

Chevalier Acton is the son of an Irish physician, who first Avas esta- 
blished at Besan9on in France, and afterwards at Leghorn in Italy. 
He is indebted for his present elevation to his own merit, and to the 
penetration of the Queen of Sardinia, who discovered in him, when 
young, those qualities, which have since distinguished him as a 
faithful counsellor and an able minister. As loyal as wise, he was 
from 1789 an enemy to the French Revolution. He easily foresaw 
that the specious promise of regeneration, held out by impostors or 
fools, to delude the ignorant, the credulous, and the weak, would 
end in that universal corruption and general overthrow, which we 
since have witnessed, and the effects of which our grand-children 
will mourn. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 95 

When our Republic, in April 1792, declared war against Austria, 
and when, in the September following, the dominions of his Sardi- 
nian Majesty were invaded by our troops, the neutrality of Naples 
continued, and was acknowledged by our government. On the 16th 
of December following, our fleet from Toulon, however, cast anchor 
in the Bay of Naples, and a grenadier of the name of Belleville was 
landed as an ambassador of the French Republic, and threatened a 
bombardment, in case the demands he presented in a note were not 
acceded to within twenty-four hours. Being attacked in time of 
peace, and taken by surprise, the Court of Naples was unable to 
make any resistance, and Chevalier Acton informed our grenadier 
ambassador, that this note had been laid before his Sovereign, who 
had ordered him to sign an agreement in consequence. 

When, in February 1793, the King of Naples was obliged, for 
his own safety, to join the league against France, Acton concluded 
a treaty with your country, and informed the Sublime Porte of the 
machinations of our Committee of Public Safety, in sending De 
Semonville as an ambassador to Constantinople ; which, perhaps, 
prevented the Divan from attacking Austria, and occasioned the 
capture and imprisonment of our emissary. 

Whenever our government has, by the success of our arms, been 
enabled to dictate to Naples, the removal of Acton has been insisted 
upon ; but though he has ceased to transact business ostensibly as 
a minister, his influence has always, and deservedly, continued un- 
impaired, and he still enjoys the just confidence and esteem of his- 
Prince. 

But is his Sicilian Majesty equally well represented at the cabinet 
of St. Cloud, as served in his own capital ? I have told you before, 
that Buonaparte is extremely particular in his acceptance of foreign 
diplomatic agents ; and admits none near his person, whom he does 
not believe to be well inclined to him. 

Marquis de Gallo, the ambassador of the King of the Two Sicilies 
to the Emperor of the French, is no novice in the diplomatic career. 
His Sovereign has employed him for these fifteen years in the most 
delicate negotiations, and nominated him, in May 1795, a minister 
of the foreign department, and a successor of Chevalier Acton, an 



96 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

honour which he declined. In the svimmer and autumn 1797, 
Marquis de Gallo assisted at the conferences at Udine, and signed 
with the Austrian plenipotentiaries the peace of Campo Formio, on 
the 17th of October 1797. 

During 1798, 1799, and 1800, he resided as Neapolitan ambas- 
sador at Vienna, and was again entrusted by his Sovereign with 
several important transactions with Austria and Russia. After a 
peace had been agreed to between France and the Two Sicilies, in 
March 1801, and the Court of Naples had every reason to fear, and 
of course to please, the Court of St. Cloud, he obtained his present 
appointment ; and is one of the few foreign ambassadors here, who 
has escaped both Buonaparte's private admonitions in the diplomatic 
circle, and public lectures in Madame Buonaparte's drawing-room. 

This escape is so much the more fortunate and singular, as our 
government is far from being content with the mutinous spirit (as 
Buonaparte calls it) of the government of Naples ; which, consider- 
ing its precarious and enfeebled state, with a French army in the 
heart of the kingdom, has resisted our attempts and insults with a 
courage and dignity that demand our admiration. 

It is said that the Marquis de Gallo is not entirely free from 
some taints of modern philosophy ; and that he, therefore, does not 
consider the consequences of our innovations so fatal as. most loyal 
men judge them ; nor thinks a sans-culotte Emperor more danger- 
ous to civilized society than a sans-culotte sovereign people. 

It is evident, from the names and rank of its partisans, that the 
Revolution of Naples, in 1799, was different in many respects from 
that of every other country in Europe. For, although the political 
convulsions seem to have originated among the middle classes of the 
community, the extremes of society were every where else made to 
act against each other ; the rabble being the first to triumph, and 
the nobles to succumb. But here, on the contrary, the lazzaroni, 
composed of the lowest portion of the population of a luxurious 
capital, appear to have been the most strenuous, and indeed almost 
, the only supporters of Royalty ; while the great families, instead of 
being indignant at novelties which levelled them, in point of political 
rights, with the meanest subject, eagerly eifibraced the opportunity 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 97 

of altering that form of government, which alone made them great. 
It is, however, but justice to say, that though Marquis de Gallo 
gained the good graces of Buonaparte and of France in 1797, he 
was never directly or indirectly inculpated in the revolutionary tran- 
sactions of his countrymen in 1799, when he resided at Vienna; 
and indeed, after all, it is not improbable that he disguises his real 
sentiments, the better to serve his country, and by that means has 
imposed on Buonaparte, and acquired his favour. 

The address and manners of a courtier are allowed Marquis de 
Gallo by all who know him, though few admit that he possesses any 
talents as a statesman. He is said to have read a great deal, to 
possess a good memory, and no bad judgment, but that, notwith- 
standing this, all his knowledge is superficial, aliquid in omnibus ef 
nihil in toto. 



LETTER XXIV. 

Paris^ August 1805t 



MY LORD, 



YOU have perhaps heard, that Napoleone Buonaparte, with all 
his brothers and sisters, was last Christmas married by the Pope, 
according to the Roman Catholic rite ; being previously only united, 
according to the municipal laws of the French Republic, which con 
sider marriage only as a civil contract. During the two last months 
of his Holiness's residence here, hardly a day passed that he was not 
petitioned to perform the same ceremony for our conscientious grand 
functionaries and courtiers, which he, however, according to the 
Emperor's desire^ declined. But his Cardinals were not under the 
same restrictions : and to an attentive observer, who has watched 
the progress of the Revolution, and not lost sight of its actors, no- 
thing could >appear more ridiculous, nothing could inspii'e more 
contempt of our versatility and inconsistency, than to remark 

O 



98 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

among the foremost to demand the nuptial benediction, a Talleyrandj 
a Fouche, a Real, an Augereau, a Chaptal, a Reubel, a Lasnes, a 
Bessieres, a Thuriot, a Treilhard, a Merlin, with a hundred other 
equally notorious revolutionists, who were, twelve or fifteen years 
ago, not only the first to declaim against religious ceremonies as rii« 
diculous, but against reli^on itself as useless : whose motives pro- 
duced, and whose votes sanctioned those decrees of the legislature, 
which proscribed the worship, together with its priests and sectaries. 
But then the fashion of barefaced infidelity was as much the order 
of the day, as that of external sanctity is at present. I leave to ca- 
suists the decision, whether to the morals of the people, naked 
atheism, exposed with all its deformities, is more or less hurtful, 
than concealed atheism covered with the garb of piety ; but for my 
part, I think the noon-day murderer less guilty, and much less de- 
testable, than the midnight assassin who stabs in the dark. 

A hundred anecdotes are daily related of our new saints, and fa- 
shionable devotees ; they would be laughable were they not scanda- 
lous, and contemptible, did they not add duplicity to our other vices. 

Buonaparte and his wife go now every morning to hear mass^ 
and on every Sunday or hoUday, they regularly attend at vespers ; 
when, of course, all those who wish to be distinguished for their 
piety, or rewarded for their flattery, never neglect to be present. In 
the evening of last Christmas day, the Imperial chapel was as usual 
early crowded, in expectation of their Majesties^ when the cham- 
berlain Salmatoris entered, and said to the captain of the guard, 
loud enough to be heard by the audience, the Emperor and the 
Empress have just resolved not to come here to-night; his Majesty 
being engaged by some tmexpected business, and the Empress not 
wishing to come without her consort. In ten minutes, the chapel 
Was emptied of every person but the guards, the priests, and three 
old women, who had no where else to pass an hour. At the arrival 
of our Sovereigns, they were astonished at the unusual vacancy, and 
indignantly regarded each other. After vespers were over, one of 
Buonaparte's spies informed him of the cause ; when, instead of 
pt;nishing the despicable and hypocritical courtiers, or shewing 
them any signs of his displeasure, he ordered Salmatoris under 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 99 

aiTcst; who would have experienced a complete disgrace, had not 
his friend Duroc interfered, and made his peace. 

At another time, on a Sunday, Fouche entered the chapel in the 
midst of the service, and wliispered to Buonaparte, who immediately 
i>eckoned to his lord in waiting, and to Duroc. These both left the 
Imperial chapel, and returning in a few minutes at the head of five 
grenadiers, entered the grand gallery, generally frequented by the 
most scrupulous devotees, and seized every book. The cause of 
this domiciliary visit was' an anonymous communication received by- 
the minister of police, stating, that libels against the Imperial familyj 
bound in the form of prayer books, had been placed there. No such 
libels were however found : but of one hundred and sixty pretended 
breviaries, twenty-eight were volumes of novels, sixteen of poems, 
and eleven of indecent books. It is not necessary to add, that the 
proprietors of these edifying works never reclaimed them. The 
opinions are divided here, whether this curious discovery originated 
in the malice of Fouche, or whether Talleyrand took this method 
of duping his rival, and at the same time of gratifying his own 
malignity. Certain it is, that Fouche was severely reprimanded for 
the transaction, and that Buonaparte was highly offended at the 
disclosure. 

The common people, and the middle classes, are neither so 
ostentatiously devout, nor so basely perverse. They go to church 
as to the play, to gape at others, or to be stared at themselves ; to 
pass the time, and to admire the show : and they do not conceal 
that such is the object of their attendance. Their indifference 
about futurity equals their ignorance of religious duties. Om* 
revolutionary charlatans have as much brutalized their understand- 
ing, as corrupted their hearts. They heard the grand mass said by 
the Pope with the same feelings as they formerly heard Robespierre 
proclaim himself an high priest of a Supreme Being ; and they 
looked at the imperial processions with the same insensibility as 
they once saw the daily caravans of victims passing for execution. 

Even in Buonaparte's own guard, and among the officers of his 
household troops, several examples of rigour were necessary, before 
they would go to any pl^ce of worship, or suffer in their corps any 



100 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

almoners : but now, after being drilled into a belief of Chri&tianity, 
they march to the mass as to a parade or to a review. With any 
other people, Buonaparte would not so easily have changed in two 
years the customs of twelve, and forced military men to kneel 
before priests, whom they but the other day were encouraged to 
hunt and massacre like wild beasts. 

On the day of the assumption of the Holy Virgin, a company of 
gens-d'armes d'Elite, headed by their officers, received publicly, 
and by orders, the sacrament : when the Abbe Frelaud approached 
towards Lieutenant Ledoux, he fell into convulsions, and was carried 
into the sacristy. After being a little recovered, he looked round 
him, as if afraid that some one would injure him ; and said to the 
grand vicar Clauset, who enquired the cause of his accident and 
terror : " Good God ! that man who gave me, on the 2d of Septem- 
ber 1792, the five wounds in the convent of the Carenes, from which 
I still suffer, is now an officer, and was about to receive the sacra- 
ment from my hands." When this occurrence was reported to 
Buonaparte, Ledoux was dismissed ; but Abbe Frelaud was trans- 
ported, and the grand vicar Clauset sent to the Temple, for the 
scandal their indiscretion had caused. This act was certainly as 
unjust towards him who was bayonetted to the altar, as towards 
those who served the altar, under the protection of the bayonets. 



LETTER XXV. 

Paris, August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



ALTHOUGH the seizure of Sir George Rumbold might in your 
country, as well as every where else, inspire indignation, it could no 
where justly excite surprise. We had crossed the Rhine, seven 
months before, to seize the Duke of Enghien : and, when any prey 
invited, the passing of the Elbe was only a natural consequence of 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 101 

the former outrage ; of audacity on our part, and of endurance or 
indifference on the part of other Continental States. Talleyrand's 
note at Aix-la-Chapelle had also informed Europe that we had 
adopted a new and military diplomacy ; and, in confounding power 
with right, would respect no privileges at variance with our ambi- 
tion, interest, or suspicions, or any independence it was thought use- 
ful or convenient for us to invade. 

It was reported here, at the time, that Buonaparte was much 
offended with General Frere, who commanded this political expedi- 
tion, for permitting Sir George's servant to accompany his master ; 
as Fouche and Real had already tortures prepared and racks waiting, 
and, after forcing your agent io speak out, would have announced his 
sudden death, either by his own hands, or by a coup-dc-sang, before 
any Prussian note could require his release. The known morality 
of our goverament must have removed all doubts of the veracity of 
this assertion : a man might, besides, from the fatigues of a long 
journey, or from other causes, expire suddenly; but the exit of 
two, in the same circumstances, would have been thought at least 
extraordinary, even by our friends, and suspicious by our enemies. 

The official declaration of Rheinhard (our minister to the Circle 
of Lower Saxony) to the Senate at Hamburgh, in which he disavowed 
all knowledge on the subject of the capture of Sir George Rumbold, 
occasioned his disgrace. This man, a subject of the Elector of 
Wirtemberg by birth, is one of the negative accomplices of the 
criminals of France, who, since the Revolution, have desolated 
Europe. He began in 1792 his diplomatic career, under Chauvelin 
and Talleyrand in London, and has since been the tool of every 
faction in power. In 1796 he was appointed a minister to the 
Hanse Towns ; and, without knowing why, was hailed as the point 
of I'ally to all the philosophers, philanthropists, illuminati, and other 
revolutionary amateurs, with whom the north of Gei^raany, Poland, 
Denmark, and Sweden then abounded. A citizen of Hamburgh, or 
rather of the luorld, of the name of Seveking, bestowed on him the 
hand of a sister : and though he is not accused of avarice, some of 
tlie contributions, extorted by our government from the neutral 
Hanse Town are said to have been left behind in his coffers, instead 



102 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

of being forwarded to this capital. Either on this account, or for 
some other reason, he was recalled from Hamburgh in January 
1797, and remained unemployed until the latter part of 1798, when 
he was sent a minister to Tuscany. 

When, in the summer of 1799, Talleyrand was forced by the 
Jacobins to resign his place as a minister of the foreign department, 
he had the adroitness to procure Rheinhard to be nominated his 
successor. So that, though no longer nominally the minister, he 
still continued to influence the decisions of our government as much 
as if still in office ; because, though not without parts, Rheinhard has 
neither energy of character, nor consistency of conduct. He is so 
much accustomed, and wants so much to be governed, that in 1796, 
at Hamburgh, even the then emigrants, Madame de Genlis, and 
General Valence, directed him, when he was not ruled or dictated 
to by his wife or brother-in-law. 

In 1 800, Buonaparte sent him as a representative to the Helvetian 
Republic, and, in 1802, again to Hamburgh; w^here he was last 
winter superseded by Bourrienne, and ordered to an inferior station at 
the Electoral Court at Dresden. Rheinhard will never become one 
of those daring diplomatic banditti, whom revolutionary governments 
always employ in preference. He has some moral principles, and 
though not religious, is rather scrupulous. He would certainly sooner 
resign, than undertake to remove by poison, or by the steel of a bravo, 
a rival of his own, or a person obnokious to his employers. He 
would never indeed betray the secrets of his government, if he 
understood they intended to rob a dispatch, or to stop a messenger; 
but no allurements whatever would induce him to head the parties 
perpetrating these acts of cur modern diplomacy. 

Our present minister at Hamburgh, Bourrienne, is far from being 
so nice. A revoiulionist from the beginning of the Revolution, he 
shared with the partizans of La Fayette imprisonment under 
Robespierre, and escaped death only by emigration. Recalled 
afterwards by his friend, the late Director, Barras, he acted as a 
kind of secretary to him until 1796, when Buonaparte demanded 
him, having known him at the military college. During all Buona- 
parte's campaigns in Italy, Egypt, and Syria, he was his sole and 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 103 

confidential secretary ; a situation which he lost in 1 802, when 
Talleyrand denounced his corruption and cupidity ; because he had 
rivalled him in speculating in the funds, and profiting by the infor- 
mation which his place afforded him. He was then made a coun- 
sellor of state ; but in 1803 he was involved in the fraudulent bank- 
ruptcy of one of our principal houses, to the amount of a million of 
livres, 42,000/. ; and, from his correspondence with it, some reasons 
appeared to suspect that he frequently had committed a breach of 
confidence against his master ; who, after erasing his name from 
among the counsellors of state, had him conveyed a prisoner to the 
Temple, where he remained six months. A small volume, called 
Le Livre Rouge of the Consular Court, made its appearance about 
that time, and contained some articles, which gave Buonaparte 
reason to suppose that Bourrienne was its author. On being 
questioned by the grand judge Regnier, and the minister Fouche^ 
before whom he was carried, he avowed that he had written it, but 
denied that he had any intention of making it public. As to its 
having found its way to the press, during his confinement, that could 
tonly be ascribed to the ill will or treachery of those police agents 
who inspected his papers, and put their seals upon them. " Tell 
Buonaparte," said he, " that had I been inclined to injure him in 
the public opinion, I should not have stooped to such trifles as Le 
Livre Rouge, while I have deposited with a friend his original or- 
ders, letters, and other curious documents, as materials for an 
edifying history of our military hospitals, during the campaigns 
of Italy and Syria ; all authentic testimonies of his humanity and 
tenderness for the wounded and dying French soldiers.'* 

After the answers of this interrogatory had been laid before Buo- 
naparte, his brother Joseph was sent to the Temple to negociate 
with Bourrienne, who was offered his liberty, and a prefecture, if he 
would give up all the original papers, that, as a private secretary, 
he had had opportunity to collect. " These papers," answered 
Bourrienne, " are my only security against your brother's wrath, 
and his assassins. Were I weak enough to deliver them up to-day, 
to-morrow probably I should no longer be counted among the^ 
living; but I have now taken my measures so effectually, thatweire 



104 SECRET HISTORY OF TttE 

I murdered to-day, these originals would be printed to-morroW. If 
Napoleone does not confide in my word of honour, he may trust to 
an assurance of discretion, with which my own interest is nearly 
connected. If he suspects me of having wronged him, he is con- 
vinced also of the eminent services I have rendered him, sufficient 
surely to outweigh his present suspicion. Let him again employ 
me in any post worthy of him and of me, and he shall soon see how 
much I will endeavour to regain his confidence." 

Shortly afterwards Bourrienne was released, and a pension, equal 
to the salary of a counsellor of state, was granted him, until some 
suitable place became vacant. On Champagny's being appointed a 
minister of the home department, the embassy at Vienna was de- 
manded by Bourrienne, but refused, as previously promised to La 
Rochefoucault, ovir late minister at Dresden. When Rheinhard, in 
a kind of disgrace, was transferi'ed to that relatively insignificant 
post, Bourrienne was ordered, with extensive instructions, to Ham- 
burgh. The Senate soon found the difference between a timid and 
honest minister, and an unprincipled and crafty mtriguer. New 
loans were immediately required from Hanover ; but hardly were 
these acquitted, than fresh extortions were insisted on. In some 
secret conferences, Bourrienne is however said to have hinted.^ that 
some douceurs were expected, for alleviating the rigour of his in- 
structions. This hint has no doubt been taken, because he suddenly 
altered his conduct, and instead of hunting the purses of the Ger- 
mans, pursued the persons of his emigrated countrymen ; and, in a 
memorial, demanded the expulsion of all Frenchmen, who were not 
registered and protected by him, under pretence that every one of 
them who declined the honour of being a subject of Buonaparte 
must be a traitor against the French government and his country. 

Bourrienne is now stated to have connected himself with several 
stock-jobbers, both in Germany, Holland, and England ; and already 
to have pocketed considerable sums by such connexions. It is, 
however, not to be forgotten, that several houses have been ruined 
in this capital by the iirqfits allowed him, who always refused to 
share their losses j but, whatever were the consequencesj enforced 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 105 

to its foil amount the payment of that value, which he chose to set 
on his commvmications. 

A place in France would no doubt ha.ve been preferable to Bour- 
rienne, particularly one near the person of Buonaparte. But if 
nothing else prevented the accomplishment of his wishes, his long 
familiarity with all the Buonapartes, whom he always treated as 
equals, and even now (with the exception of Napoleone) does not 
think his superiors, will long remain an insurmountable barrier. 

I cannot comprehend how Buonaparte (who is certainly no bad 
judge of men) could so long confide in Bourrienne, who, with the 
usual presumption of my countrymen, is continually boasting, to a 
degree that borders on indiscretion, and, by an artful questioner, 
may easily be led to overstep those bounds. Most of the particulars 
of his quarrel with Napoleon^ I heard him relate himself, as a proof 
of his great consequence, in a company of forty individuals, many of 
whom were imknown to him. 

On the first discovery which Buonaparte made of Bourrienne's 
infidelity, Talleyrand complimented him upon not having suffered 
more from it. " Do you not see,'' answered Buonaparte, " it is also 
one of the extraordinary gifts of my extraordinary good fortune ? 
Even traitors are unable to betray me. Plots respect me as much 
as bullets." I need not tell you, that Fortune is the sole divinity 
sincerely worshipped by Napoleone, 



LETTER XXVL 

Parisy August 1805. 



WY LORD, 



JOSEPH BUONAPARTE leads a much more retired life, and 
sees less company, than any of his brothers or sisters. Except the 
members of his own family, he but seldom invites any guests, nor 
has Madame Joseph those regular assemblies and circle^ which 



106 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Madame Napoleone and Madame Louis Buonaparte have. His 
hospitality is, however, greater at his country seat, Morfontaine, 
than at his hotel here. Those whom he likes, or does not mistrust 
(who, by the bye, are very few), may visit him without much for- 
mality in the country, and prolong their stay according to their own 
inclination or discretion ; but they must come without their servants, 
or send them away on their arrival. 

As sQon as an agreeable visitor presents himself^ it is the etiquette 
of the house to consider him as an inmate ; but to allow him, at the 
same time, a perfect liberty to dispose of his hours and his person, 
as suits his convenience or caprice. In this fextensive and superb 
mansion a suit of apartments is assigned him, with a valet-de-cham- 
bre, a lackey, a cpachipan, a groom, and a jockey, all under his own 
exclusive command. He has allotted him a chariot, a gig, and 
riding horses, if he prefers such an exercise. A catalogue is given 
him of the library of the chateau ; and every morning he is informed 
what persons compose the company at breakfast, dinner, and supper, 
and of the hours of these different repasts. A bill of fare is at the 
same time presented to him, and he is asked to poiht out those 
dishes to which he gives the preference, and to declare whether he 
chuses to join the company, or to be served in his own rooms. 

During the summer season, players from the different theatres 
of Paris are paid to perform three times in the week ; and each 
gue^t, according to the period of his arrival, is asked in his turn to 
command either a comedy or a tragedy, a farce or a ballet. Twice 
in the week concerts are executed by the first performers of the 
Opera Buffa ; and twice in the week invitations to tea parties are 
sent to some of the neighbom's, or accepted from them. 

Besides four billiard tables, there are other gambling tables for 
Rouge et JVoir^ Trente et Quarante, Pharo., La Roulette^ Birribiy 
and other games of hazard. The bankers are young' men from 
Corsica, to whom Joseph, who advances the money, allows all the 
gain, while he alone suffers the loss. Those who are inclined may 
play fromraorning till night, and from night till morning, without 
interruption, as no one interferes. Should Joseph hear that any 
person has been too severely treated by fortune, or suspects that he 



COURT OF ST. cloud: 107 

has not much xash remaining, some rouleaus of Mt/ioleone's d'ors 
are placed on the table of his dressing-room, which he may use or 
leave untouched, as he judges proper. 

The hours of Joseph Buonaparte are neither so late as yours in 
England, nor so early as they were formerly in France. Breakfast 
is ready served at ten o'clock, dinner at four, and supper at nine. 
Before midnight he retires to bed with his family ; but victors do 
as they like, and follow their own usual hours, and their servants are 
obliged to wait for them. 

When any business calls Joseph away, either to preside in the 
Senate here, or to travel in the provinces, he notices it to his visitors ; 
telling them at the same time not to displace themselves on account 
of his absence, but wait till his return, as they would not observe any 
difference in the economy of his house, of which Madame Joseph 
always does the honours, or in her absence some lady appointed 
by her. 

Last year, when Joseph first assumed a military rank, he passed 
nearly four months with the army of England on the coast, or in 
Brabant. On his return all his visitors were gone, except a young 
poet of the name of Montaigne, who does not want genius, but who 
is rather too fond of the bottle. Joseph is considered the best gour- 
met^ or connoisseur in liquors and wines, of this capital ; and Mon- 
taigne found his Champaigne and Bourgogne so excellent, that he 
never once went to bed that he was not heartily intoxicated. But 
the best of the story is, that he employed his moi^nings in com- 
posing a poem, holding out to abhorrence the disgusting vice of 
drunkenness;, and presented it to Joseph, requesting permission 
to dedicate it to him when published. To those who have read it, 
or only seen extracts from it, the compilation appears far from being 
contemptible ; but Joseph still keeps the copy, though he has made 
the author a present of one hundred Napoleone's d'ors, and procured 
him a place of an amanuensis in the Chancellory of the Senate, 
having resolved never to accept any dedication, but wishing also not 
to hurt the feelings of the author by a refusal. 

In a chateau where so many visitors of licentious and depraved 
morals meet, of both sexes, and where such an unlimited liberty 



108 SECRET mSTORY OF THE 

reigns, intrigues must occur, and have of course not seldom fur- 
nished materials for the scandalous chronicle. Even Madame 
Joseph herself has either been gallant or calumniated : report says, 
that to the nocturnal assiduities of Eugenius de Beauharnois, and of 
Colonel la Fond-Blaniac, she is exclusively indebted for the honour 
of maternity, and that these two rivals even fought a duel concerning 
the right of paternity. Eugenius de Beauharnois never was a great 
favourite with Joseph Buonaparte, whose reserved manners and 
prudence form too great a contrast to his noisy and blundering way, 
to accord with each other. Before he set out for Italy, it was well 
known in our fashionable circles, that he had been interdicted the 
house of his uncle, and that no reconciliation took place, notwith- 
standing the endeavours of Madame Napoleone. To humble him 
so much the more, Joseph even nominated La Fond-Blaniac an 
equerry to his wife, who therefore easily consoled herself for the 
departure of her dear nephew. 

The husband of Madame Miot (one of Madame Joseph's ladie& 
in waiting) was not so patient, or such a philosopher as Joseph 
Buonaparte. Some charitable person having reported in the com- 
pany of a bonne amie of Miot, that his wife did not pass her nights 
in solitude, but that she sought consolation among the many gallants 
and disengaged visitors at Morfontaine, he determined to surprise 
her. It was past eleven o'clock at night when his arrival was 
announced to Joseph, just retired to his closet. Madame Miot had 
been in bed ever since nine, ill of a migraine., and her husband was 
too affectionate not to be the first to inform her of his presence, 
ivithout permitting any body previously to disturb her. With great 
reluctance, Madame Miot's maid delivered the key of her rooms, 
while she accompanied him with a light. In the anti-chamber he 
found a hat and a great-coat, and in the closet adjoining the bed- 
room, a coat, a waistcoat, and a pair of breeches, with drawers, 
stockings, and slippers. Though the maid kept coughing all the 
time, Madame Miot and her gallant did not awake from their slum- 
ber tUl the enraged husband began to use the bludgeon of the lover, 
which had also been left in the closet. A battle then ensued, in 
which the lover retaliated so vigorously, that the husband called out 



COURT OF ST. ClOUD. 109 

murder! murder! with all his might. The chateau was instantly 
in an uproar, and the apartments crowded with half dressed and half 
naked lovers. Joseph Buonaparte alone was able to separate the 
combatants ; and inquiring the cause of the riot, assured tliem that 
he would suffer no scandal and no intrigues in his house, without 
seriously resenting it. An explanation being made, Madame Miot 
was looked for,_'but in vain; and the maid declared, that being 
warned by a letter from Paris of her husband's jealousy and deter- 
mination to surprise her, her mistress had reposed herself in her 
roona ; while, to punish the ungenerous suspicions of her husband> 
she had persuaded Captain d'Horteuil to occupy her place in her 
own bed. The maid had no sooner finished her deposition, than her 
mistress made her appearance, and upbraided her husband severely, 
in which she was cordially joined by the spectators. She inquired 
if, on seeing the dress of a gentleman, he had also discovered the 
attire of a female ? and she appealed to Captain d'Horteuil, whether 
he had not the two preceding nights also slept in her bed. To this 
he of course assented; adding, that had M. Miot attacked him the 
first night, he would not then perhaps have been so roughly handled 
as now ; for then he was prepared for a visit, which this night was 
rather unexpected. This connubial farce ended by Miot begging 
pardon of his wife and her gallant ; the former of whom, after much 
entreaty by Joseph, at last consented to share with him her bed- 
But being disfigured with two black eyes, and suffering from several 
bruises, and also ashamed of his unfashionable behaviour, he conti- 
nued invisible for ten days aftei'wards, and returned to this city as 
he had left it, by stealth. 

This Miot was a spy under Robespierre, and is a counsellor of 
State under Buonaparte. Without bread, as well as without a home, 
he was, from the beginning of the Revolution, one of the most 
ardent fiatriots, and the first republican minister in Tuscany. After 
the Sovereign of that country had in 1793 joined tlie league, Miot 
returned to France, and was, for his want of address to negociate a^ 
a minister, shut up to perform the part of a spy in the Luxembui*gh» 
then transformed into a prison of suspected persons. Thanks to 
his fiatriotzsm, upwards of two hundred individuals of both sexes 



110 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

were denounced, transfei-f-ed to the Concier^erie prisonjand after- 
wards guillotined. After that, until 1799, he continued so despised, 
that no faction would accept him for art accomplice ; but in the 
November of that year, after Buonaparte had declared himself a 
First Consul, Miot was appointed a tribune, an office from which he 
was advanced, in 1803, to be a counsellor of state. As Miot squan- 
ders away his salary With harlots, and in gambling houses, and is 
pursued by creditors he neither Will nor can pay, it was merely 
from charity that his wife was received among the other ladies of 
Madame Joseph Buonaparte's household. 



LETTER XXVn. 

Paris, August 1805. 



MY LORD,^ 



NOTWITHSTANDING the ties of consanguinity, honour, duty, 
interest, and gratitude, which bound the Spanish Bourbons to the 
cause of the Bourbons of France, no monarch has rendered more 
service to the cause of rebellion, and done more harm to the cause 
of royalty, than the king of Spain. 

But here again you must understand me : when I speak of 
Prmces, whose talents are known not to be brilliant, whose intellects 
are known to be feeble, and whose good intentions are rendered 
null, by a want of firmness of character, or consistency of conduct ; 
while I deplore their weakness, and the consequent misfortunes of 
their contemporaries, I lay all the blame on their wicked or ignb- 
rant counsellors ; because, if no ministers were fools or traitors, no 
Sovereigns would tremble on their thrones, and no subjects dare to 
shake their foundation. Had Providence blessed Charles IV of 
Spain with that judgment in selecting his ministers, and that con- 
stancy in persevering in his choice, as your George III ; had the 
helm of Spain been in the firm and able hands of a Grenville, a 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. Ill 

Windhamj and a Pitt, the cabinet of Madrid would never have been 
oppressed by the yoke of the- cabinet of St. Cloud, nor paid a heavy 
tribute for its bondage, degrading as well as ruinous. 

" This is the age of Upstarts," said Talleyrand to his cousin 
Prince de Chalais, who rept-oached him for an unbecoming servility 
to low and vile personages ; " and I prefer bowing to them, to being 
trampled upon and crushed by them.'^ Indeed, as far as I remem- 
ber, no where in history are hitherto recorded so many low persons, 
who, from obscurity and meanness, have suddenly and at once 
attained rank and notoriety. Where do we read of such a numerous 
crew of upstart emperors, kings, grand pensionaries, directors, 
imperial highnesses, princes, field-marshals, generals, senators, mi- 
nisters, governors, cardinals, 8cc. as we now witness figuring upon 
the theatre of Europe, and who chiefly decide on the destiny of 
nations? Among these, several are certainly to be found, whose 
superior parts have made them worthy to pierce the crowd, and to 
shake off their native mud ; but others again, and by far the great- 
est number of these novi homines^ owe their present elevation to 
shameless intrigues or atrocious crimes. 

The prinie minister, or rather the viceroy of Spain, the Prince of 
Peace, belongs to the latter class. From a man in the ranks of the 
guards, he was promoted to a general in chief, and from a harp- 
player in antichambers, to a president of the counsels of a Prince ; 
and that within the short period of six years. Such a fortune is not 
common; but to be absolutely without capacity as well as virtue, 
genius as well as good-breeding, and nevertheless to continue in an 
elevation so little merited, and in a place formerly so subject to 
changes, and so unstable, is a fortune that no upstart ever before 
experienced in Spain. 

An intrigue of his elder brother with the present Queen, then 
Princess of Asturia, which was discovered by the late King, intro- 
duced him first at court as a harp-player ; and when his brother was 
exiled, he was entrusted with the correspondence of the Princess 
with her gallant. After she had ascended the throne, he thought it 
more profitable to be the lover than the messenger, and contrived, 
therefore, to supplant his brother in the royal favour. Promotions 



ii2 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

and riches were consequently heaped upon him ; and, what is sur- 
prising, the more undisguised the partiality of the Queen was, the 
greater the attachment of the King displayed itself ; and it has ever 
since been an emulation between the royal couple, who should the 
most forget and vilify birth and supremacy, by associating this man 
not only in the courtly pleasures, but in the functions of sovereignty. 
Had he been gifted with sound understanding, or possessed any 
share of delicacy, generosity, or discretion, he would, while he pro^ 
fited by their imprudent condescension, have prevented them from 
exposing their weaknesses and frailties to a discussion and ridicule 
among courtiers, and from becoming objects of humiliation and 
scandal among the people. He would have warned them of the 
danger, which at all times attends the publicity of the foibles and 
vices of Princes, but particularly in the present times of trouble and 
innovations. He would have told them : Make me great and wealthy, 
but not at the expence of your o\m grandeur, or of the loyalty of 
your people. Do not treat an humble subject as an equal ; nor suf- 
fer your Majesties, whom Providence destined to go^ern a high 
spirited nation, to be openly ruled by one born to obey. I am too 
dutiful not to lay aside my private vanity, when the happiness of my 
King, and the tranquillity of my fellow subjects are at stake. I am 
already too high. In descending a little, I shall not only rise m the 
eyes of my contemporaries, but in the opinion of posterity. Every 
step I am advancing undermines your throne. In retreating a little, 
if I do not strengthen, 1 can never injure it. But I beg your pardon 
for this digression, and for putting the language of dignified reason 
into the mouth of a man as corrupt as he is imbecile. 

Do not suppose, because the Prince of Peace is no fi'iend of my 
nation, that I am his enemy. No! had he shewn himself a true 
patriot, a friend of his own country, and of his too liberal Prince, 
or even of monarchy in general, or of any body else but himself, 
although I might have disapproved of his policy, if he has any, I 
would never have lashed the individual for the acts of the minister. 
But you must have observed with me, that never, before his adminis- 
tration, was the cabinet of Madrid worse conducted at home, or more 
despised abroad ; the Spanish monarch more humbled, or Spanish 



COURT OF ST. CLOtJt), 113 

subjects more wretched ; the Spanish power more dishonoured, or 
the Spanish resources worse employed. Never before the treaty 
with France of 1796, conckided by this wiseacre (which made him 
a Prince of Peace, and our government the sovereign of Spain), was 
the Spanish monarchy reduced to such a lamentable dilemma, as to 
be forced into an expensive war without a cause, and into a disgrace- 
ful peace, not only unprofitable, but absolutely disadvantageous. 
Never before were its treasures distributed among its oppressors, 
to support their tyramiy, nor its military and naval forces employed 
to fight the battles of rebellion. The loyal subjects of Spain have 
only one hope left. The delicate state of his pi'esent Majesty's 
health does not prom':te a luuch longer continuance of his reign ; 
and the Prince of Asturia is too well informed, to endure the 
guidance of the most ignorant minister that ever was admitted into 
the cabinet and confidence of a sovereign. It is more than proba- 
ble, that under a new reign the misfortunes of the Prince of Peace 
will inspire as much compassion, as his rapid advancement has 
excited astonishment and indignation. 

A cabinet thus badly directed, cannot be expected to have repre- 
sentatives abroad,, either of abilities or patriotism. The Admiral 
and General Gravina, who but lately left this capital, as an ambas- 
sador from the Court of Spain, to assume the command of a Spa- 
nish fleet, is more valiant than wise, and more an enemy of your 
country than a friend of his ov/n. He is a profound admirer of 
Buonaparte's virtues and successes ; and was, during his residence, 
one of the most ostentatiously awkward courtiers of Napoleone tl^e 
First. It is said, that he has the modesty and loyalty to wish to be- 
come a Spanish Buonaparte ; and that he promises to restore, by 
his genius and exploits, the lost lustre of the Spanish monarchy. 
When this was reported to Talleyrand, he smiled v/ith contempt ; 
but when it was told to Buonaparte, he stamped with rage at the im- 
pudence of the Spaniard, in daring- to associate his name of acquired 
and established greatness, with his own impertinent schemes of ab- 
surdities and impossibilities. 

In the summer of 1793, Gravina commanded a division of the 
Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, of which Admiral Langara was 

Q 



114 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

the commander-in-chief. At the capitulation of Toulon, after the 
combined English and Spanish forces had taken possession of it, 
when Rear-Admiral Goodall was declared governor, Gravina was 
made the commandant of the troops. At the head of these he often 
fought bravely in different sorties, and on the first of October was 
wounded at the re-capture of Fort Pharon. He complains still of 
having suffered insults or neglects from the English ; and even of 
having been exposed unnecessarily to the fire and sword of the ene- 
my, merely because he was a patriot, as well as an envied or sus- 
pected ally. His inveteracy against your country takes its date, no ^ 
doubt, from the siege of Toulon, or perhaps from its evacuation. 

When, in May 1794, our troops were advancing towards Coli- 
oures, he was sent with a squadron to bring it succours ; but he ar- 
rived too late, and could not save that important place. He was not 
iTxore successful at the beginning of the campaign of 1795 at Rosa, 
where he had only time to carry away the artillery, before the ene- . 
my entered. In August that year, during the absence of Admiral 
Massaredo, he assumed ad interim the command of the Spanish fleet 
in the Mediterranean, but in the December following he was dis- 
graced, arrested, and shut up as a state prisoner. 

During the embassy of Lucien Buonaparte to the Court of Ma- 
drid, m the autumn 1800, Gravina was by his influence restored to 
favour, and after the death of the late Spanish ambassador to tlie 'i 
Cabinet of St. Cloud, Chevalier d' Azzara, by the special desire of Na- i; 
poleone was nominated both his successor, and a representative of the 
King of Etruria. Among the members of our diplomatic corps, he 
was considered somewhat of a Spanish gasconader and a bully. He 
more frequently boasted of his wounds and battles, than of his nego- 
ciations or conferences, though he pretended, indeed, to shine as 
much in the cabinet as in the field. 

In his suite were two Spanish women, one about forty, and the 
other about twenty years of age : nobody knew what to make of 
them, as they were neither treated as wives, mistresses, nor servants, 
and they avowed themselves to be no relations. After a residence 
here of some weeks, he was, by Buperior orders^ way -laid one night 
at the opera, by a young and beautiful dancing girl, of the name of 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 115 

Barrois, who engaged him to take her into keeping. He hesitated, 
indeed, for some time ; at last, however, love got the better of his 
scruples, and he furnished for her an elegant apartment on the new 
Boulevard. On the day he carried her there, he was accompanied 
by the chaplain of the Spanish Legation ; and told her that, previous 
to any further intimacy, she must be married to him, as his reli- 
gious principles did not permit him to cohabit with a woman, who 
was not his wife ; at the same time he laid before her an agreement 
to sign, by Which she bound herself never to claim him as a hus- 
band before her turn, that is to say, until sixteen other women, to 
whom he had been previously married, were dead. She made no 
opposition either to the marriage, or to the conditions annexed to it. 
This girl had a sweetheart of the name of Valere, an actor at one of 
the little theatres on the Boulevards, to whom she communicated 
her adventure ; he advised her to be scrupulous in her turn, and to 
ask a copy of the agreement. After some difficulty, this was ob- 
tained. In it no mention was made of her maintenance, nor in what 
manner her children were to be regarded, should she have any : Valere 
had, therefore, another agreement drawn up, in which all these 
points were arranged according to his own interested views. Gravina 
refused to subscribe to what he plainly perceived were only extor- 
tions ; and the girl, in her turn, not only declined any farther con- 
nexion with him, but threatened to publish the act of polygamy. 
Before they had done discussing this subject, the door was suddenly 
opened, and the two Spanish ladies presented themselves. After, 
severely upbraiding Gravina, who was struck mute by surprise, they 
announced to the girl, that whatever promise or contract of marriage 
she had obtained from him was of no value, as before they came with 
him to France, he had bound himself, before a public notary at Ma*? 
drid, not to forrn any new connexions, nor to marry any other woman 
without thei^- written consent. One of these ladies declared that she 
had been married to Gravina twenty-two years, and was his oldest wife 
but one ; the other said that she had been married to him six year^. 
They insisted upon his following theni) which he did, after putting 
a purs^ of gold into Barrois' hand. 



116 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

When Valere heard from his mistress this occurrence, he advised 
her to make the most money she could of the Spaniard's curious 
scruples. A letter therefore was written to him, demanding one 
himdred thousand livres, 4000/. as the price of secrecy, and with- 
holding the particulars of this busmess from the knowledge of the 
tribunals and the police ; and an answer was required within twenty- 
four hours. The same night Gravina offered one thousand Louis, 
which were accepted, and the papers returned ; but the next day 
Valere went to his hotel, rue de Provence, where he presented him- 
self as a brother of Barrois. He stated, that he still possessed au^ 
thenticated copies of the papers returned, and that he must have either 
the full sum first asked by his sister, or an annuity of twelve thou- 
sand livres settled upon her. Instead of an answer, Gravina ordered 
him to be turned out of the house. An attorney then waited on his 
Excellency, on the part of the brother and the sister, and repeated 
their threats and their demands, adding, that he would write a me- 
morial both to the Emperor of the French, and to the King of Spain, 
were justice refused to his principals any longer. 

Gravina was well aware, that this affair, though more laughable 
than criminal, would hurt both his character and credit, if it were 
known in France ; he therefore consented to pay seventy-six thou- 
sand livres more, upon a formal renunciation by the party of all fu- 
ture claims. Not having money sufficient by him, he went to bor- 
row it from a banker, whose clerk was one of Talleyrand's secret 
agents. Our minister, therefore, ordered every step of Gravina to 
be watched ; but he soon discovered, that instead of wanting this 
money for a political intrigue, it was necessary to extricate him out 
of an amorous scrape. Hearing, however, in what a scandalous 
manner the ambassador had been duped and imposed upon, he re- 
ported it to Buonaparte, who gave Fouche orders to have both Va- 
lere, BaiTois, and the attorney immediately transported to Cayenne, 
and to restore Gravina his money. The former part of this order, the 
minister of the police executed so much the more willingly as it 
was according to his plan that Barrois had pitched upon Gravina for 
a lover. She had been intended by him for a spy on hi§ Excelleji- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 117 

cy ; but had deceived him by her reports ; a crime for which trans- 
portation was an usual punishment. 

Notwithstanding the care of our government to conceal and bury 
this affair in oblivion, it furnished matter both for conversation in 
our fashionable circles, and subjects for our caricaturists. But these 
artists were soon seized by the police, who found it more easy to 
chastise genius than to silence tongues. The declaration of war by 
Spain against your country, was a lucky opportunity for Gravina to 
quit with honour a Court, where he was an object of ridicule, to as- 
sume the command of a fleet, Avhich might one day make him an 
object of terror. When he took leave of Buonaparte, he was told 
to return to France victorious, or never to return any more,; and 
Talleyrand warned him as a friend, " whenever he returned to hi« 
post in France, to leave his marriage mania behind him in Spain. 
Here," said he, " you may, without I'idicule, intrigue with a hundred 
women, but you run a great risk only by marrying one." 

I have been in company with Gravina, and after what I heard him 
say, so far from judging him superstitious, I thought him really im- 
pious. But infidelity and bigotry are frequently next door neigh- 
bours. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

Par/?, August 1805. 



MY LORD, 



IT cannot have escaped the observation of the most superficial 
traveller of rank, that at the Court of St. Cloud want of morals is 
not atoned for by good breeding or good manners. The hideous- 
ness of vice, the pretensions of ambition, the vanity of rank, the 
pride of favour, and the shame of venality, do not wear here that 
delicate veil, that gloss of virtue, which, in other courts, lessens the 
deformity of corruption, and the scandal of depravity. Duplicity 



118 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

and hypocrisy are here very common indeed, more so than dissi- 
mulation any where else; but barefaced knaves and impostors 
must always make indifferent courtiers. Here the minister tells 
you, I must have such a sum for a place ; and the chamberlain tells 
you,- count down so much for my protection. The princess requires 
a necklace of such a value, for interesting herself for your advance- 
ment ; and the lady in waiting demands a diamond of such worth 
on the day of your promotion. This tariff of favours and of infamy 
descends ad infinitum. The secretary for signing, and the clerk for 
writing your commissions ; the cashier for delivering it, and the 
messenger for informing you of it, have all their fixed prices. Have 
you a lawsuit, the judge announces to you, that so much has been 
offered by your opponent, and so much is expected from you, if you 
desire to win your cause. When you are the defendant against 
the crown, the attorney or solicitor-general lets you know, that such 
a douceur is requisite to procure such an issue. Even in criminal 
proceedings, not only honour, but life, may be saved by pecuniary 
sacrifices. 

A man of the name of Martin, by profession a stock-jobber, killed 
in 1803 his own wife ; and for twelve thousand livres, 500^. he was 
acquitted, and recovered his liberty. In November last year, in a 
quarrel with his own brother, he stabbed him through the heart, and 
for another sum of twelve thousand livres, he was acquitted and 
released before last Christmas. This wretch is now in prison again, 
on suspicion of having poisoned his own daughter, with whom he 
had an incestuous intercourse, and he boasts publicly of the certainty 
of soon being liberated. 

Another person, Louis de Saurac, the younger son of Baron de 
Saurac, who, together with his eldest son, had emigrated, forged a 
will in the name of his parent, whom he pretended to be dead, which 
left him the sole heir of all the disposable property, to the exclusion 
of two sisters. After the nation had shared its part, as heir of all 
emigrants, Louis took possession of the remainder. In 1802, both 
his father and brother accepted of the general amnesty, and returned 
to France. To their great surprise, they heard that this Louis had 
by his ill treatment forced his sisters into servitude, refusing them 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 119 

even the common necessaries of life. After upbraiding him for his 
want of duty, the father desired, according to the law, the restitu- 
tion of the unsold part of his estates. On the day fixed for settling 
the accounts, and entering into his right. Baron de Saurac was 
arrested as a conspirator, and imprisoned in the Temple. He had 
been denounced as having served in the army of Conde, and a& 
being a secret agent of Louis XVIII. To disprove the first part of 
the charge, he produced certificates from America, where he had 
passed the time of his emigration, and even upon the i^ack he denied 
the latter. During his arrest, the eldest son discovered, that Louis 
had become the owner of their possessions by means of the will he 
had forged in the name of his' father; and that it was he who had 
been unnatural enough to denounce the author of his days. With 
the wreck of their fortune in St. Domingo, he procured his father's 
release ; who, being acquainted with the perversity of his younger 
son, addressed himself to the department, to be reinstated in his 
property. This was opposed by Louis ; who defended his title to 
the estate by the revolutionary maxim, which had passed into a law, 
enacting, that all emigrants should be considered as politically dead. 
Hitherto Baron de Saurac had, from affection, declined to mention 
the forged will; but shocked by his son's obduracy, and being 
reduced to distress, his counsellor produced this document, which 
not only went to deprive Louis of his property, but exposed him to 
a criminal prosecution. 

This unnatural son, who was not yet twenty-five, had imbibed all 
the revolutionary morals of his contemporaries, and was well ac- 
quainted with the moral characters of his revolutionary countrymen. 
He addressed himself therefore to Merlin of Douai, Buonaparte's 
Imperial attorney -general, and commander of his Legion of Honour ; 
who, for a bribe of fifty thousand livres, 2,100/. obtained for him, 
after he had been defeated in every other court, a judgment in his 
favour, in the tribunal of cassation ; under the sophistical cc!;cIusion, 
that all emigrants being, according to law, considered as politically 
dead, a will in the name of any one of them was merely a pious fraud, 
to preserve the property in the family. 



120 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

This Merlin is the son of a labourer of Anchin, and was a servant 
of the abbey of the same name. One of the monks, observing in 
him some application, charitably sent him to be educated at Douai, 
after having bestowed on him some previous education. Not satis- 
fied with this generous act, he engaged the other monks, as well as 
the chapter of Cambray, to subscribe for his expences of admission, 
as an attorney, by the parliament of Douai, in which situation the 
Revolution found him. By his dissimulation and assumed modesty, 
he continued to dupe his benefactors ; who by their influence ob- 
tained for him the nomination as a representative of the people to 
our first National Assembly. They soon, however, had reason to 
repent of their generosity. He joined the Orleans faction, and 
became one of the most persevering, violent, and cruel persecutors 
of the privileged classes, particjularly of the clergy, to whom he was 
indebted for every thing. In 1792 he was elected a member of the 
National Convention, where he voted for the death of his King. It 
was he who proposed a law (justly called by Prudhomme the pro- 
duction of the deliberate homicide Merlin) against suspected persons, 
which was decreed on the 17th September 1793, and caused the 
imprisonment or proscription of two hundred thousand families. 
This decree procured him the appellation of Merlin Suspects^ and 
of Mar tin Potence, In 1795 he was first appointed a minister of 
police, and soon afterwards a minister of justice. After the revolu- 
tion in favour of the Jacobins, of the 4th September 1797, he was 
made a Director ; a place which he was obliged by the same Jaco- 
bins to resign in June 1799. Buonaparte expressed at first the 
most sovereign contempt for this Merlin ; but on account of one of 
his sons, who was his aide-de-camp, he was appointed by him, when 
First Consul, his attorney-general. 

As nothing paints better the true features of a government than 
the morality or -vices of its functionaries, I will finish this man's 
portrait with the following characteristic touches. 

Merlin de Douai has been successively the counsel of the late 
Duke of Orleans, the friend of Danton, of Chabot, and of Hebert, 
the admirer of Marat, and the servant of Robespierre. An accom- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 121 

plice of Rewbel, Barras, and la Reveilliere, an author of the law of 
suspected persons, an advocate of the Septembrisers, and an ardent 
apostle of the St. Guillotme. Cunning as a fox and ferocious as a 
tiger, he has outlived all the factions with which he has been con- 
nected. It has been his policy to keep in continual fermentation, 
rivalships, jealousies, inquietudes, revenge, and all other odious 
passions ; establishing by such means his influence on the terror of 
some, the ambition of others, and the credulity of them all. Had 
I, when Merlin proposed his law concerning suspected persons, in 
the name of libertij and equality, been free and his equals I should 
have said to him : " Monster, this your atrocious law is your sentence 
of death : it has brought thousands of innocent persons to an un- 
timely end ; you shall die by my hands as a victim, if the tribunals do 
not condenm you to the scaffold as an executioner, or as a criminal." 
Merlin has bought national property to the amount of fifteen 
millions of liyres, 625,000/. and he is supposed to possess money 
nearly to the same amount, in your or our funds. For a man born a 
beggar, and educated by charity, this fortune, together with the liberal 
salaries he enjoys, might seem sufficient, without selling justice, 
protecting guilt, and oppressing or persecuting innocence. 



122 SECRET HISTORY OF TH^ 



LETTER XXIX. 

Paris, August 1805* 



MY LORO^ 



THE household troops of Napoleone the First are by thousands 
more numerous than those even of Louis XIV were. Grenadiers 
on foot and on horseback ; riflemen on foot and on horseback ; hea- 
vy and light artillery; dragoons and hussars; mamelukes and 
sailors ; artificers and pontoneers ; gens-d'armes and gens-d'armes 
d'Elite ; Velites and veterans ; with Italian grenadiers, riflemen, dra- 
goons, 8cc. See. compose all together a no inconsiderable army. 

Though it frequently happens, that the pay of the other troops is 
in arrear, those appertaining to Buonaparte's household are as regu- 
larly paid as his senators, counsellors of state, and other public 
functionaries. All the men are picked, and all the officers, as much 
as possible, of birth, or at least of education. In the midst of this 
voluptuous and seductive capital, they are kept very strict, and the 
least negligence or infraction of military discipline is more severely 
punished than if committed in garrison, or in an encampment. 
They are both better clothed, accoutred, and paid, than the troops 
of the line, and have every where the precedency of them. All the 
officers, and many of the soldiers, are members of Buonaparte's 
Legion of Honour ; and carry arms of honour, distributed to them 
by Imperial favour, or for military exploits. None of them are 
quartered upon the citizens ; each corps has its own spacious bar- 
racks, hospitals, drilling ground, riding or fencing houses, gardens, 
bathing-houses, billiard table, and even libraries. A chapel has 
lately been constructed near each barrack, and almoners are already 
appointed. In the mean time, they attend regularly at mass, either 
in the Imperial chapel or in the parish churches. Buonaparte dis- 
courages much all marriages among the mihtary in general, but 
particularly among those of his household troops. That they may 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 123 

not, however, be entirely deprived of the society of women, he 
allows five to each company, with the same salaries as the men, 
under the name of washerwomen. 

With a vain and fickle people, fond of shows and innovations, 
nothing, in a military despotism, has a greater political utility, gives 
greater satisfaction, and leaves behind a more useful terror and awe, 
than Buonaparte's grand military reviews. In the beginning of his 
consulate, they regularly occurred three times in the month ; after 
his victory of Marengo, they were reduced to once in a fortnight ; 
and since he has been proclaimed Emperor, to once only in the 
month. This ostentatious exhibition of usurped power is always 
closed with a diplomatic review of the representatives of lawful 
Princes ; who introduce, on those qccasions, their fellow subjects tp 
another subject, who successfully has seized, and continues to usurp, 
the authority of his own sovereign. What an example for ambi- 
tion 1 what a lesson to tre^achery ! 

Besides the household troops, this capital and its^vicinity have, for 
these three years past, never conta.ined less than from fifteen to 
twenty thousand men of the regiment^ of the line ; belonging to 
what is called the first rnilitary division of the army of the interior. 
These troops are selected from among the brigades that served 
under Buonaparte in Italy and Egypt with the greatest eclat, and 
constitute a kind of depot for recruiting his household with tried 
and trusty men. They are also regularly paid, and generally better 
accoutred than their comrades enpamped on the coast, or quartered 
in Italy or Holland. 

But a standing army, upon which all revolutionary rulers can de- 
pend, and that will always continue their faithful support, unique in 
its sort and composition, exists in the bosom as well as iii the extre- 
mities of this country, I mean, one hundred and twenty thousand 
invalids, mostly young rnen u^der thirty, forced by conscription 
against their will into the field ; quartered and taken care of by our 
government, and all possessed with the absurd prejudice, that, as 
they have been maimed in fighting the battles of rebellion, the res- 
toration of legitimate sovereignty would to them be an epoch of 
destruction, or at least of misery and want ; and this prejudice is 



124 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

kept alive by emissaries employed on purpose to mislead them. Of 
these, eight thousand are lodged and provided for in this city ; ten 
thousand at Versailles; and the remainder in Piedmont, Brabant, 
and in the conquered departments on the left bank of the Rhine ; 
countries where the inhabitants are discontented and disaffected, and 
require therefore to be watched, and to have a better spirit infused. 

Those whose wounds permit it are also employed to do garrison 
duty, in fortified places not exposed to an attack by enemies, and to 
assist in the different arsenals and laboratories, founderies and depots 
of military or naval stores. Others are attached to the police 
offices, and some as gens-d'armes to arrest suspected or guilty indi^ 
viduals ; or as garnissaires, to enforce the payment of contributions 
from the unwilling or distressed. When the period for the payment 
of taxes is expired, two of these garnissaires present themselves at 
the house of the persons in arrears, with a billet signed by the 
director of the contributions, and countertsigned by the police com- 
missary. If the money is not immediately paid, with half-a-crown 
to each of them besides, they remain quartered in the house, where 
they are to be boarded, and to receive half-a-ci'own a day each, vmtil 
an order from those who sent them informs them that what was 
due to the state has been acquitted. After their enrtrance into a 
house, and during their stay, no furniture or effects whatever can 
be removed or disposed of; nor can the master or mistress go out 
of doors without being accompanied by one of them. 

In the houses appropriated to our invalids, the inmates are very 
well treated, and government takes ^reat care to make them satisfied 
with their lot. The officers have large halls, billiards, and reading- 
room to meet in ; and the common men are admitted into apart- 
ments adjoining libraries, from which they cfin borrow v/hat books 
they contain, and read them at leisure. This is certainly a very 
good and even humane institution, though these libraries chiefly 
contain military liistories or novels. 

As to the morals of these young invalids, they .may be well con- 
ceived when you remember the 7norality of our revolution ; and that 
they, without any religious notions or restraints, were not only 
permitted, but encouraged, to partake of the debauchery and licen* 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 125 

tiousness which were carried to such an extreme in our armies and 
encampments. In an age when the passions are strongest, and 
often blind reason and silence conscience, they have not the means 
nor the permission to marry ; in their vicinity it is, therefore, more 
difficult to discover one honest woman, or a dutiful v/ife, than hun- 
dreds of harlots and of adulteresses. Notwithstanding that many 
of them have been accused before the tribunals of seductions, rape, 
and violence against the sex, not one has been punished for what 
the morality of our government consider merely as bagatelles. Even 
in cases where husbands, brothers, and lovers have been killed by 
them, while defending or avenging the honour of their wives, sisters, 
and mistresses, our tribunals have been ordered by our grand judge, 
according to the commands of the Emperor, not to proceed. As 
most of them have no occupation, the vice of idleness augments the 
mass of their corruption ; for men of their principles, when they 
have nothing to do, never do any thing good. 

I do not know if my countrywomen feel themselves honoured by 
or obliged to Buonaparte, for leaving their virtue and honour un- 
protected, except by their own prudence and strength ; but of this 
I am certain, that all our other troops, as well as the invalids, may 
live on free quarters with the sex, without fearing the consequences, 
provided they keep at a distance from the females of our Imperial 
family, and of those of our grand officers of state and principal func- 
tionaries. The wives and the daughters of the latter have, how- 
ever, sometimes declined the advantage of these exclusive privileges. 

A horse grenadier of Buonaparte's Imperial guard, of the name 
of Rabais, notorious for his amours and debauchery, was accused 
before the Imperial judge Thuriot, at one and the same time, by 
several husbands and fathers, of having seduced the afiections of 
their wives, and of their daughters. As usual, Thuriot refused to 
listen to their complaints; at the same time insultingly advising 
them to retake their v/ives and children, and for the future to be 
more careful of them. Triumphing, as it were, in his injustice, he 
inconsiderately mentioned tjie circumstance to his own wife ; ob- 
serving, that he never knew so fnany charges of the same sort 
exhibited against one man. 



126 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Madame Thuriot, who had been ,a servant-maid to her husband 
before he made her his v>'ife, instead of being disgusted at the re- 
cital, secretly determined to see this Rabais. An intrigue was then 
begun, and carried on for four months, if not with discretion, at 
least without discovery ; but the lady's own imprudence at last be- 
trayed her: or I should say rather, her jealousy. But foi this, she 
might still have been admired among our modest women, and Thu- 
riot among fortunate husbands and happy fathers ; for the lady, for 
the first time since her marriage, proved, to the great joy and pride 
of her husband, in the family way. Suspecting, however, the fidelity 
of her paramour, she watched his motion so closely, that she dis- 
covered an intrigue between him and the chaste spouse of a rich 
banker ; but the consequence of this discovery was the detection of 
her oAvn crime. 

On the discovery of his disgrace, Thuriot obtained an audience 
of Buonaparte, in which he exposed his misfortune, and demanded 
punishment on his wife's gallant. As, however, he also acknow- 
ledged that his own indiscretion was an indirect cause of their con- 
nection, he received the same advice which he had given to other 
unfortunate husbands : to retake, and for the future guard better, his 
dear moiety. 

Thuriot had, however, an early opportunity of wreaking his ven- 
geance on the gallant Rabais. It seems his prowess had reached 
the ears of Madame Bachiocchi, the eldest sister of Buonaparte. 
This lady has a children mania, which is very troublesome to her 
husband, disagreeable to. her relations, and injurious to herself. She 
never beholds any lady, particularly any of her family, in the way 
T.vhich women wish to be who love their lords, but she is absolutely 
frantic. Now Thuriot's worthy friend Fouche hjid discovered by 
his spies, that Rabais paid frequent and secret visits to the hotel 
Bachiocchi, and that Madam Bachiocchi was the object of these vi- 
sits. Thuriot, on this discovery, instantly denounced him to Buona- 
parte. 

Had Rabais ruined all the v/omen of this capital, he would not 
■ordy have been forgiven, but applauded by Napoleone, and his 
counsellors and courtiers ; but to dare to approach, or only to cas.t 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 127 

his eyes on one of our Imperial Highnesses, was a crime nothing 
Gould extenuate or avenge but the most exemplary punishment. 
He was therefore arrested, sent to the Temple, and has never since 
been- heard of; so that his female friends are still in the ci-uel urxer- 
tainty, whether he has died on the rack, been buried alive in the 
dubliettesy or is wandermg an exile in the wilds of Cayenne. 

In examining his trunk, among the curious effects discovered by 
the police, were eighteen portraits, and one hundred billet-doux^ 
with medallions, icings, bracelets, tresses of hair, &c. as numerous. 
Two of the portraits occasioned much scandal, and more gossiping. 
They were those of two of our most' devout and most respectable 
court ladies, maids of honour to our empress, Madame Ney arid 
Madame Lasnes ; who never miss an opportunity of going to 
church, who have received tlie private blessing of the Pope, and 
who regularly confess to some bishop or other, once in a fortnight. 
Madame Napoleone cleared them, however, of all susfiicion, by 
declaring publicly in her drawing-room, that these portraits had 
coine into the possession of Rabais by the infidelity of their maids ; 
who had confessed their faults, and, therefore, had been charitably 
pardoned. -Whether the opinions of Generals Ney and Lasnes coin- 
cide with Madaitie Napoleone's assertion is uncertain ; but Lasnes 
has been often heard to say, that from the instant his wife began to 
confess, he was convinced she was inclined to dishonour him ; so 
that nothing surpi'ised him. 

One of the medallions in Rabais' collection contained on one side 
the portrait of Thuriot, and on the other that of his wife ; both set 
with diamonds, and presented to her by him on their last wedding 
day. For the supposed theft of this medallion two of Thuriot's 
servants were in prison, Avhen the arrest of Rabais explained the 
manner in which it had been lost. This so enraged him, that he 
beat and kicked his wife so heartily, that for some time even her 
life was in danger, and Thuriot lost all hopes of being a father. 

Before the Revolution, Thuriot had been, for fraud and forgery, 
struck off the roll as an advocate, and therefore joined it as a patriot. 
In 1791 he was chosen a deputy to the National Assembly, and in 
1793 to the National Convention. He alwavs shewed himself one 



128 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

of the most ungenerous enemies of the clergy, of monarchy, and of 
his King; for whose death he voted. On the 25th of May 1792, 
in declaiming against Christianity and priesthood, he wished them 
both, ybr the ivelfare of mankind, at the bottom of the sea; and on 
the 1 8th of December the same year, he declared in the Jacobin 
Club, that if the National Convention evinced any signs of clemency 
towards Louis XVI, he would go himself to the Temple, and blow 
out the brains of this unfortunate King. He defended in the tri- 
bune the massacres of the prisoners, affirming, that the tree of 
liberty could never flourish without being inundated with the blood 
of aristocrates, and other enemies of the Revolution. He has been 
convicted by rival factions of the most shameful robberies, and his 
infamy and depravity were so notorious, that neither Marat, Brissot, 
Robespierre, nor the Directory would or could employ him. After 
the revolution of the 9th November 1799, Buonaparte gave him the 
office of Judge of the Criminal Tribunal, and in 1 804 made him a 
Commander of his Legion of Honour. He is now one of our Em- 
peror's most faithful subjects, and most sincere Christians. Such is 
now his tender conscientiousness, that he was among those who 
were the first to be married again by some Cardinal to their present 
wives ; to whom they had formerly been united only by the muni- 
cipality. This new marriage, however, took place before Madame 
Thuriot had introduced herself to the acquaintance of the Imperial 
Grenadier Rabais. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 121 



LETTER XXX. 

Paris f August 1805. 

MY LORD, 

BEING considered as a connoisseur, though I have no 
pretensions but that of being an amateur, Lucien Buonaparte, 
shortly before his disgrace, invited me to pass some days with 
him in the country, and to assist him in arranging his very 
valuable collection of pictures ; next our public ones, the 
most curious and most valuable in Europe, and of course in 
the world. I found here, as at Joseph Buonaparte's, the same 
splendour, the same etiquette, and the same liberty; which 
latter was much enhanced by the really engaging and unassum- 
ing manners and conversation of the host. At Joseph's, even 
in the midst of abundance and of liberty, in seeing the person, 
or meditating on the character of the host, you feel both your 
inferiority of fortune and the humiliation of dependence, and 
that you visit a master instead of a friend, who indirectly tells 
you, ' eat, di'ink, and rejoice, as long and as much as you like; 
but remember, that if you are happy, it is to my generosity 
you are indebted ; and, if unhappy, that I do not care a pin 
about you.' With Lucien it is the very reverse. His conduct 
seems to indicate, that, by your company, you confer an obli- 
gation on him ; and he is studious to remove, on all occasions, 
that distance which fortune has placed between him and his 
gr.ests; and as he cannot compliment them upon being weal- 
thier than himself, he seizes with delicacy every opportunity 
to shew that he acknowledges their superiority in talents and 
in genius, as more than an equivalent for the absence of riches. 
He is nevertheless himself a young man of uncommon 
parts, and, as far as I could judge from my short intercourse 
with the reserved Joseph, and with the haughty Napoleone, 
he is abler and better informed than either, and much more 
open and sincere. His manners are also more elegant, and 
his language more polished ; which is the more creditable" to 



122 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

him, when it is remembered how much his education has been 
neglected, how vitiated the revolution made him, and that but 
lately^ his principal associates were, like himself, from among 
the vilest and most vulgar of the rabble. It is not necessary 
to be a keen observer to remark in Napoleone the upstart sol- 
dier, and in Joseph the former low member of the law ; but I 
defy the most refined courtier to see in Lucien any thing indi- 
cating a ci-devant Sans Culotte. He has, besides, other quali- 
ties (and those more estimable) which will place him much 
above his elder brother^ in the opinion of posterity. He is ex- 
tremely compassionate and liberal to the truly distressed ; ser- 
viceable to those whom he knows are not his friends, and 
forgiving and obliging even to those who have proved and 
avowed themselves his enemies. These are virtues commonly 
very scarce, and hitherto never displayed by any other member 
of the Buonaparte family. 

An acquaintance of yours, and a friend of mine, Count de 

T , at his return here from emigration, found, of his 

whole former fortune, producing once eighty thousand livres 
(33001.) in the year, only four farms unsold; and these were 
advertised for sale. A man who had once been his servant, but 
was then a groom to Lucien, offered to present a memorial for 
him to his master, to prevent the disposal of the only support 
which remained to subsist himself, with a wife and four chil- 
dren. lAicien asked Napoleone to prohibit the sale, and to re- 
store the count the farms, and obtained hjs consent; but Fouche, 
whose cousin wanted them, having purchased other national pro-* 
perty in the neighbourhood, prevailed on Napoleone to forget 
his promise, and the farms were sold. As soon as Lucien heard 
of it, he sent for the count, delivered into his hand an annuity 
of six thousand livres (2501.) for the life of himself, his wife, 
and his children, as an indemnity for the inefficacy of his endea- 
vours to serve him, as he expressed himself. Had the count re- 
covered the farms, they would not have given him a clear pro- 
fit of half the amount, all taxes paid. 

A young author, of the name of Gauvan, irritated by the loss 
of parents and fortune by the revolution, attacked, during 1799, 
in the public prints, as well as in pamphlets, every revolution- 
ist who had obtained notoriety or popularity. He was particu^ 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 123 

larly vehement against Lucien, and laid before the public all 
his crimes, and all his errors, and asserted as facts atrocities 
which were either calumnies or merely rumouro. When, after 
Napoleone's assumption of the consulate, Lucien was appointed 
a minister of the interior, he sent for Gauvan, and said to him, 
" Great misfortunes have early made you wretched, and unjust ; 
and you have frequently revenged yourself on those who could 
not prevent them ; among whom I am one. You do not want 
capacity, nor, I believe, probity. Here is a commission, which 
makes you a director of the contributions in the departments of 
' the Rhine and Moselle, an oflRce with a salary of twelve thou- 
sand livres (5001.), but producing double that sum. If you meet 

with any difficulties, write to me 1 am your friend. Take 

those one hundred louis-d'ors for the expenses of your journey. 
Adieu !" — This anecdote I have read in Gauvan's own hand- 
writing, in a letter to his sister. He died in 1802; but Made- 
moiselle Gauvan, who is not yet fifteen, has a pension of three 
thousand livres a year (1251.) from Lucien, who has never seen 
her. 

Lucien Buonaparte has another good quality ; he is consist- 
ent in his political principles. Either from conviction or delu- 
sion, he is still a republican ; and does not conceal that, had he 
suspected Napoleone of any intent to re-establish monarchy, 
much less tyranny, he would have joined those deputies, who, 
on the 9th of November, 1799, in the sitting, at St. Cloud, de- 
manded a decree of outlawry against him. If the present quar- 
rel between these two brothei's were sifted to the bottom, per- 
haps it would be found to originate more from Lucien's repub- 
licanism than from his marriage. 

I know, with all France and Europe, that Lucien's youth 
has been very culpable ; that he has committed many indiscre- 
tions, much injustice, many imprudences, many errors, and, I 
fear, even some crimes. I know that he has been the most 
profligate among the profligate, the most debauched among li- 
bertines, the most merciless among plunderers, and the most 
perverse among rebels. I know that he is accused of being a 
Septembrizer ; of having murdered one wife, and poisoned Jino- 
ther; of having been a spy, a denouncer, a persecutor of inno- 
cent persons in the reign of terror. I know that he is accused 



124 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

of having fought his brothers-in-law ; of having ill used his mo- 
ther ; and of an incestuous commerce with his own sisters. I 
have read and heard of these and other enormous accusations; 
and far be it from me to defend, extenuate, or even deny them. 
But suppose all his infamy to be real, to be proved, to be authen- 
ticated, which it never has been, and, to its whole extent, I am 
persuaded, never can be ; what are the cruel and depraved acts 
of which Lucien has been accused, to the enormities and bar- 
barities of which Napoleone is convicted. Is the poisoning a wife 
more criminal than the poisoning a whole hospital of wounded 
soldiers? or the assisting to kill some confined persons, sus- 
pected of being enemies, more atrocious than the massacre, 
in cold blood, of thousands of disarmed prisoners."* Is incest 
with a sister more shocking to humanity than the well-known, 

unnatural, pathic but I will not continue the disgusting 

comparison. As long as Napoleone is unable to acquit him- 
self of such barbarities and monstrous crimes, he has no right 
to pronounce Lucien unworthy to be called his brother; nor 
have Frenchmen, as long as they obey the former as a sove- 
any reign, nor has the continent, as long as it salutes him as 
such, reason to despise the latter, for crimes which lose their 
enormity when compared to the horrid perpetrations of his Im- 
perial brother. 

An elderly lady, a relation of Lucien's wife, and a person in 
whose veracity and morality I have the greatest confidence, and 
for whom he always had evinced more regard than even for his 
own mother, has repeated to me many of their conversations. 
She assures me, that Lucien deplores frequently the Avant of a 
good and religious education, and the tempting examples of 
perversity he met with almost at his entrance upon the revolu- 
tionary scene. He says that he determined to get rich Jierfas 
aut nefas, because he observed that money was every thing; 
and that most persons plotted and laboured for power merely 
to be enabled to gather treasure; though, after they had obtain- 
ed both, much above their desert and expectation, instead of be- 
ing satiated, or even satisfied, they bustled and intrigued for 
more, until success made them unguarded, and prosperity in- 
discreet, and they became, with their wealth, the easy prey of 
rival factions. Such was the case of Danton, of Fabre d'Eglan- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 125 

tine, of Chabot, of Chautnette, of Stebert, and other contemptir 
ble wretches, butchered by Robespierre and his partisans; vie* 
tims in their turn to men as unjust and sanguinary as them-f 
selves. He had therefore laid out a different plan of conduct for 
himself. He had fixed upon fifty millions of livres (2,100,0001.) 
as the maximum he should wish for ; and when that sum was 
in his possession, he resolved to resign all pretensions to rank 
and employment, and to enjoy otium cum dignitate. He has 
kept to his determination, and so regulated his income, that, 
with the expenses, pomp, and retinue of a prince, he is enabled 
to make more persons happy and comfortable than his extort 
tions have ruined, or even embarrassed. He now lives like a 
fi/iUoso/i/ieryand endeavours to forget the past, to delight in the 
present, and to be indifferent about futurity. He chose there- 
fore for a wife a lady whom he loved and esteemed, in prefer- 
ence to one whose birth would have been a continual reproach 
to the meanness of his own origin. 

You must with me admire the modesty of a citizen Sans Cu-t 
lotte, who, without a shilling in the world, fixes upon fifty mil- 
lions as a reward for his revolutionary achievements, and with 
which he would be satisfied to sit down and begin his singular 
course of singular philosophy. But his success is more extra-^ 
ordinary than his pretensions were extravagant. This im- 
mense sum was amassed by him in the short period of four 
years, chiefly by bribes from foreign courts, and by selling his 
protections in France. 

But most of the other Buonapartes have made as great and 
afs rapid fortunes as Lucien ; and yet instead of being generous, 
contented, or even /i/iilosofihers, they are still profiting, by every 
occasion, to increase their ill-gotten treasures; and no distress 
was ever relieved, no talents encouraged, or virtues recompensed 
by them. The mind of their garrets lodges with them in their 
palaces ; while Lucien seems to ascend as near as possible to a 
level with his circumstances. Without being ostentatious, I 
have myself found him beneficent. 

Among his numerous pictures I observed four that had for- 
merly belonged to my father's, and afterwards^ to my oWn 
cabinet. I inquired how much he had paid for them, without 
giving the least hint that they had been my property, and were 



1^5 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

plundered from me by the nation. He had indeed paid their 
full value. In a fortnight after I had quitted him, these, with 
six other pictures, were deposited in my room, with a very po- 
lite note, begging my acceptance of them, and assuring me, 
he had but the day before heard, from his picture-dealer, that 
they had belonged to me. He added that he would never re- 
take them, unless he received an assurance from me that I 
parted with them without reluctance, and at the same affixed 
price. I returned them, as I knew they were desired by him 
for his collection; but he continued obstinate. I told him 
therefore, that, as 1 was acquainted with his inclination co per- 
form a generous action, I would instead of payment for the pic- 
tures, indicate a person deserving his assistance. I mentioned 
the old Duchess de****, who is seventy-four years of age, and 
blind r and, after possessing in her youth an income of eight 
hundred thousand Uvres, (33.0001.) is now in her old age almost 
destitute. He did for this worthy lady more than 1 expected; 
but happening in his visits to relieve my friend, to cast his eye 
on the daughter of the landlady, where she lodged, he found 
means to prevail on the simplicity of the poor girl, and seduced 
her. So much do I know personally of Lucien Buonaparte; 
who certainly is a composition of good and bad qualities, but 
■which of them predominate I will not take upon me to decide. 
This I can affirm — Lucien is not the worst member of the Buona- 
parte family. 



LETTER XXXI. 

Farisj .August 1805. 



My lore. 



AS long as Austria ranks among independent nations, 
Buonaparte will take care not to offend or alarm the ambition 
and interest of Prussia, by incorporating the Batavian Republic 
with the other provinces of his empire. Until that period, the 
Dutch must continue (as they have been these last ten years) 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD, 127 

under the appellation of allies, oppressed like subjects, and plun- 
dered like foes. Their mock sovereignty will continue to 
weigh heavier on them than real servitude does on their Belgic 
and Flemish neighbours, because Frederic the Great pointed 
out to his successors the Elbe and the Texel as the natural 
borders of the Prussian monarchy, whenever the right bank of 
the Rhine should form the natural frontiers of the kingdom of 
France. 

That during the present summer, a project for a partition 
treaty of Holland has by the cabinet of St. Cloud been laid be- 
fore the cabinet of Berlin, is a fact, though disseminated only 
as a rumour by the secret agents of Talleyrand. Their object 
was on this, as on all previous occasions, when any names, 
rights or liberties of people were intended to be erased from 
among the annals of independence, to sound the ground, and 
to prepare by such rumours the mind of the public for another 
outrage and another overthrow. But Prussia as well as France 
knows the value of a military and commercial navy, and that 
to obtain it, good harbours and navigable rivers are necessary, 
and therefore, as well as from principles of justice perhaps, de- 
clined the acceptance of a plunder, which though tempting, 
was contrary to the policy of the house of Brandenburgh. 

According to a copy circulated among the members of our 
diplomatic corps, this partition treaty excluded Prussia from, 
all the Batavian sea-ports, except Delfzyl, and those of the 
river Ems; but gave her extensive territories on the side of 
Guelderland, and a rich country in Friesland. Had it been ac- 
ceded to by the court of Berlin, with the annexed condition of 
a defensive and offensive alliance with the court of St. Cloud, 
the Prussian monarchy would, within half a century, have been 
swallowed up in the same gulf, with the Batavian common- 
wealth and the Republic of Poland ; and by some future scheme 
of some future Buonaparte or Talleyrand, be divided in its turn, 
and serve as a pledge of reconciliation or inducement of connec- 
tion between some future rulers of the French and Russian 
empires. 

Talleyrand must indeed have a very mean opinion of the 
capacity of the Prussian ministers, or a high notion of his own 
Influence over them, if he was serious in this overture. For 



128 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

my part, I am rather inclined to think that it was merely 
thrown out to discover whether Frederick William HI had en- 
tered into any, engagement contrary to the interest of Napoleon 
the first; or to allure his Prussian majesty into a negotiation, 
which would suspend or at least interfere with those supposed 
to be then on the carpet with Austria, Russia, or perhaps even 
with England. 

The late Batavian government had, ever since the begin- 
ning of the present war with England, incurred the displeasure 
of Buonaparte. When it apprehended a rupture from the turn 
which the discussion respecting the occupation of Malta as- 
sumed, the Dutch ambassadors at St. Petersburgh and Berlin 
were ordered to demand the interference of these two cabinets, 
for the preservation of the neutrality of Holland; which your 
country had promised to acknowledge, if respected by France. 
No sooner was Buonaparte infermed of this step, than he 
marched troops into the heart of the Batavian Republic, and oc- 
cupied its principal forts, ports, and arsenals. When, sometime 
afterwards, Count de Markoff received instructions from his 
court, according to the desire of the Batavian Directory, and 
demanded in consequence an audience from Buonaparte, a map 
was laid before him, indicating the position of the Fi*ench troops 
in Holland, and plans of the intended encampment of our Ar- 
my of England on the coast of Flanders and France ; and he was 
asked, whether he thought it probable that our government 
would assent to a neutrality, so injurious to its offensive opera- 
tions against Great Britain? "But," said the Russian ambassa- 
dor, "the independence of Holland has been admitted by you 
in formal treaties:" — " So has the cession of Malta by England," 
interrupted Buonaparte with impatience. — " True," replied 
Markoff, " but you are now at war with England for this point, 
while Holland, against which you have no complaint, has not 
only been invaded by your troops, but, contrary both to its in- 
clination and interest, involved in a war with you, by which it 
has much to lose, and nothing to gain. — " " 1 have no account 
to render to any body for my transactions, and I desire to hear 
nothing more on this subject," said Buonaparte, retiring furi- 
ous, and leaving Markoff to meditate on our sovereign's singu^ 
lar principles of political justice, and o^ jus gentium- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 129 

From that period, Buonaparte resolved on another change 
of the executive power of the Batavian Republic. But it was 
more easy to displace one set of men for another, than to find 
proper ones to occupy a situation, in which, if they do their 
duty as patriots, they must offend France ; and if they are our 
tools, instead of the independent governors of their country, 
they must excite a discontent among their fellow- citizens ; dis- 
gracing themselves as individuals, and exposing themselves as 
chief magistrates to the fate of the De Witts, should ever for- 
tune forsake our arms, or desert Buonaparte. 

No country has of late been less productive of great men 
than Holland. The Van Tromps, the Russels, and the Wil- 
liams III, all died without leaving any posterity behind them; 
and the race of Batavian heroes seems to have expired with 
them, as that of patriots with the De Witts and Barneveldt.-^ 
Since the beginning of the last century we read indeed of 
some able statesmen, as most, if not all, the former grand pen- 
sionaries have been ; but the name of no warrior of any great 
eminence is recorded. This scarcity of native genius and va- 
lour has not a little contributed to the present humbled, dis- 
graced and oppressed state of wretched Batavia. 

Admiral de Winter certainly neither wants courage nor 
genius, but his private character has a great I'esemblance to 
that of general Moreau. Nature has destined him to obey, 
and not to govern ; he may direct as ably and as valiantly the 
manoeuvres of a fleet as Moreau does those of an army ; but 
neither the one nor the other at the head of his nation would 
long render himself respected, his country flourishing, or his 
countrymen happy and tranquil. 

Destined from his youth for the navy, admiral de Winter 
entered into the naval service of his country before he was 
fourteen, and was a second lieutenant when the Batavian pa-' 
triots^ in rebellion against the Stadtholder, were in 1787 re- 
duced to submission by the duke of Brunswick, the command* 
er of the Prussian army that invaded Holland. His parents 
and family being of the anti -orange party, he emigrated to 
France, where he was made an officer in the legion of Batavian 
refugees. During the campaign of 1793 and 1794, he so much 
distinguished himself, under that competent judge -of merit, 



130 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Pichegru, that this commander obtained for him the commis* 
sion of a general of brigade in the service of the French; which, 
after the conquest of Holland in January 1795, was exchanged 
for the rank of a vice-admiral of the Batavian Republic. His 
exploits as commander of the Dutch fleet, during the battle of 
the 1 1th of October 1797, with your fleet under Lord Duncan, 
I have heard applauded even in your presence, when in your 
country. Too honest to be seduced, and too brave to be inti- 
midated, he is said to have incurred Buonaparte's hatred by re- 
sisting both his offers and threats, and declining to sell his own 
liberty as well as to betray the liberty of his fellow-subjects. 
When, in 1800, Buonaparte proposed to him the presidency 
and consulate of the United States for life, on condition that he 
should sign a treaty, which made him a vassal of France, he 
refused with dignity and with firmness; and preferred retire- 
ment to a supremacy so dishonourably acquired, and so disho- 
nourably occupied. 

General Daendels, another Batavian revolutionist of some 
notoriety, from an attorney became a lieutenant-colonel, and 
served as a spy under Dumourier in the winter of 1792, and in 
the spring of 1793. Under Pichegru he was made a general, 
and exhibited those talents in the field which are said to have 
before been displayed in the forum. In June 1795 he was 
made a lieutenant-general of the Batavian Republic, and he 
was the commander-in-chief of the Dutch troops, combating in 
1799 your army, under the Duke of York. In this place he 
did not much distinguish himself, and the issue of the contest 
was entirely owing to our troops and to our generals. 

After the peace of Amiens, observing that Buonaparte in- 
tended to annihilate instead of establish universal liberty, 
Daendels gave in his resignation, and retired to obscurity ; not 
wishing to be an instrument of tyranny, after having so long 
fought for freedom. Had he possessed the patriotism of a Bru- 
tus or a Cato, he would have bled or died for his cause and 
country, sooner than have deserted them both; or had the am- 
bition and love of glory of Caesar held a place in his bosom, he 
would have attempted to be the chief of his country, and by 
generosity and clemency atone, if possible, for the loss of liber- 
ty. Upon the line of basehess the deserter is placed next to 
the traitor. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 131 

Dumonceau, another Batavian general of some publicity, 
is not by birth a citizen of the United States, but was born at 
Brussels in 1758 ; and was by profession a stone-mason, when 
in 1789 he joined, as a volunteer, the Belgian insurgents. After 
their dispersion in 1790, he took refuge and served in France, 
and was made an officer in the corps of Belgians, formed after 
the declaration of war against Austria in 1792. Here he fre- 
quently distinguished himself, and was therefore advanced to 
the rank of a general; but the Dutch general officers being bet- 
ter paid than those of the French Republic, he was, with the 
permission of our Directory, received in 1795, as a lieutenant- 
general of the Batavian Republic. He has often evinced bra- 
very, but seldom great capacity. His natural talents are con- 
sidered as but indiffisrent, and his education is worse. 

These are the only three military characters who might, 
with any prospect of success, have tried to play the part of a 
Napoleone Buonaparte in Holland. 



LETTER XXXII. 

Paris, August 1805. 



My lord, 



NOT to give umbrage to the cabinet of Berlin, Buonaparte 
communicated to it the necessity he was under of altering the 
form of government in Holland, and, if report be true, even con- 
descended to ask advice concerning a chief magistrate for that 
country. The young Prince af Orange, brother-in-law of his 
Prussian Majesty, naturally presented himself; but after some 
time, Talleyrand's agents discovered that great pecuniary sa- 
crifices could not be expected from that quarter, and perhaps 
less submission to France experienced than from the former 
governors. An eye was then cast on the Elector of Bavaria, 
whose past patriotism^ as well as that of his ministers, were full 
guarantees for future obedience. Had he consented to such an 
arrangement, Austria might have aggrandized herself on the 



132 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Inn ; Prussia in Franconia, and France in Italy ; and the pre- 
sent bone of contest been chiefly removed. 

This intrigue, for it was nothing else, was carried on by the 
cabinet of St. Cloud in March 1804, about the time that Ger- 
many was invaded, and the Duke of Enghien seized. This ex- 
plains to you the reason why the Russian note delivered to the 
Diet of Ratisbon on the 8th of May following, was left without 
any support, except the ineffectual one from the king of Swe- 
den. How any cabinet could be dupe enough to think Buona- 
parte serious, or the Elector of Bavaria so weak as to enter into 
his schemes, is difficult to be conceived, had not Europe wit- 
nessed still greater credulity on one side, and still greater ef- 
frontery on the other. 

In the mean time Buonaparte grew every day more discon- 
tented with the Batavian Directory, and more irritated against 
the members who composed it. Against his regulations for 
excluding the commerce and productions of your country, they 
represented with spirit, instead of obeying without murmur, as 
was required. He is said to have discovered, after his own sol- 
diers had forced the custom-house officers to obey his orders, 
that, while in their proclamations the directors publicly prohi- 
bited the introduction of British goods, some of them were se- 
cret insurers of this forbidden merchandise, introduced by fraud 
and by smuggling; and that while they officially wished for the 
success of the French arms and destruction of England, they 
withdrew by stealth what property they had in the French 
funds, to place it in the English. This refractory and, as Buon- 
aparte called it, mercantile spirit, so enraged him, that he had 
already signed an order for arresting and transferring en masse 
his high allies, the Batavian directors, to his Temple, when the 
representations of Talleyrand moderated his fury, and caused 
the order to be recalled, which Fouche was ready to execute. 

Had Jerome Buonaparte not offended his brother by his 
transatlantic marriage, he would long ago have been the Prince 
Stadtholder of Holland ; but his disobedience was so far useful 
to the cabinet of St. Cloud, as it gave it an opportunity of in- 
triguing with or deluding other cabinets, that might have any 
pretensions to interfere in the regulation of the Batavian go- 
vernment. By the choice finally ipade, you may judge how 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 133 

difficult it Was to find a suitable subject to represent it, and that 
this representation is intended only to be temporary. 

Schimmelpenninck, the present grand pensionary of the Ba- 
tavian Republic, was destined by his education for the bar, but 
by his natural parts, to await in quiet obscurity the end of a dull 
existence. With some property, little information, and a tolera- 
bly good share of common sense, he might have lived and died 
respected, and even regretted, without any pretension, or per- 
haps even ambition to shine. The anti-orange faction to which 
his parents and family appertained, pushed him forward, and 
elected him, in 1795, a member of the first Batavian National 
Convention, where according to the spirit of the times, his 
speeches were rather those of a demagogue tlian those of a re- 
pubUcan. Liberty, equality and fraternity were the constant 
themes of his political declamations ; infidelity his religious pro- 
fessions; and the examples of immorality his social lessons. 
So rapid and dangerous are the strides with which seduction 
frequently advances on weak minds. 

In 1800, he was appointed an ambassador to Napoleone 
Buonaparte and Charles Maurice Talleyrand. The latter used 
him as a stock -broker, and the foi-mer for any thing he thought 
proper; and he was the humble and submissive valet of both. 
More ignorant than malicious, and a greater fool than rogue, 
he was more laughed at and despised than trusted or abused. 
His patience being equal to his phlegm, nothing either moved 
or confoimded him; and he was, as Talleyrand remarked, "a 
model of an ambassador, according to which he and Buonaparte 
wished that all other independent princes and states would choose 
their representatives to the French government." 

When our minister and his sovereign were discussing the 
the difficulty of firop-erly filling ufi the vacancy of the Dutch go- 
vernment, judged necessary by both, the former mentioned 
Schimmelpenninck with a smile ; and, serious as Buonaparte 
commonly is, he could not help laughing. " I should have been 
less astonished," said he, " had you proposed my Mameluke 
Rostan." This rebuke did not deter Talleyrand (who had set- 
tled his terms with Schimmelpenninck) from continuing to point 
out the advantage which France would derive from this nomi- 
nation, " because no man could easier be directed when in of- 



134 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

fice, and no man easier turned out of office when disagreeable 
and unnecessary. Both as Batavian Plenipotentiary at Amiens, 
and as Batavian ambassador in England, he had proved himself 
as obedient and submissive to France as when in the same ca- 
pacity at Paris." 

By returning often to the charge) with these and other re- 
marks, Talleyrand at last accustomed Buonaparte to the idea, 
which had once appeared so hutniliating, of writing to a man 
so much inferior in every thing, " Great and Dear Friend!" 
and therefore said to the minister, " Well ! let us then make 
him a grand pensionary and a locum tenens for Jive years; or 
until Jerome, when he repents, returns to his duty, and is par- 
doned." — " Is he then not to be a grand pensionary for life V 
asked Talleyrand ; " whether for one month or for life, he would 
be equally obedient to resign when commanded; but the latter 
would be more popular in Holland, where they were tired of so 
many changes." — " Let them complain, if they dare," replied 
Buonaparte. " Schimmelpenninck is their chief magistrate only 
for five years, if so long; but you may add that they may re- 
elect him." 

It was not before Talleyrand had compared the pecuniary 
proposal, made to his agents by foreign princes, with those of 
Schimmelpenninck to himself, that the latter obtained the pre- 
ference. The exact amount of the purchase-money for the 
supreme magistracy in Holland is not well known to any but 
the contracting parties. Some pretended that the whole was 
paid down before-hand, being advanced by a society of mer- 
chants at Amsterdam, the friends or relatives of the grand pen- 
sionary ; others, that it is to be paid by annual instalments of 
two millions of livres (84,0001.) for a certain number of years. 
Certain it is, that this high office was sold and bought; and that 
had it been given for life, its value would have been propor- 
tionably enhanced; which was the reason that Talleyrand en- 
deavoured to have it thus established. 

Talleyrand well knew the precarious state of Schimmelpen- 
ninck's grandeur; that it not only depended upon the whim of 
Napoleone, but had long been intended as an hereditary so- 
vereignty for Jerome. Another Dutchman asked him not to 
ruin his friend and his family, for what he was well aware could 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 135 

never be called a sinecure place, and was so precarious in its 
tenure. " Foolish vanity," answered the minister, " can never 
pay enough for the gratification of its desires. All the Schim- 
melpennincks in the world do not possess property enough to 
recompense me for the sovereign honours which I have procu- 
red for one of their name and family, were he even deposed 
within twenty-four hours. What treasures can indemnify me 
for connecting such a name and such a personage with the 
great name of the emperor of the French?" 

I have only twice in my life been in Schimmelpenninck'S 
company, and T thought him both timid and reserved ; but, from 
what little he said, I could not possibly judge of his character 
and capacity. His portrait and its accompaniments have been 
presented to me, such as delivered to you by one of his coun- 
trymen, a Mr. M (formerly an ambassador also), who 

was both his school-fellow and his class-mate at the university. 
I shall add the following traits in his own words, as near as pos- 
sible. " More vain than ambitious, Schimmelpenninck from, 
his youth, and particularly from his entrance into public life, 
tried every means to make a noise, but found none to gain a 
reputation. He caressed in succession all the systems of the 
French revolution, without adopting one for himself. All the 
kings of faction received in their turns his homage and felicita- 
tions. It was impossible to mention to him a man of any noto- 
riety, of whom he did not become immediately a partisan. — 
The virtues or the vices, the merit or defects, of the individual 
were of no consideration ; according to his judgment it was suf- 
ficient to be famous. Yet, with all the extravagances of a head 
filled with paradoxes, and of a heart spoiled by modern philoso- 
phy, added to a habit of licentiousness, he had no idea of be- 
coming an instrument for the destruction of liberty in his own 
country, much less of becoming its tyrant, in submitting to be 
the slave of France. It was but lately that he took the fancy, 
after so long admiring all other great men of our age, to be atj 
any rate one of their number, and of being admired as a great 
man in his turn. On this account many accuse him of hypo- 
crisy, but no one deserves that appellation less ; his vanity and 
exaltation never permitting him to dissimulate, and no pre- 
sumption therefore was less disguised than his, to those who 



136 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

studied the man. Without acquired ability; without natural 
genius or political capacity ; destitute of discretion and address ; 
as confident, and obstinate as ignorant he is only elevated to 
fall, and to rise no more.'* 

Madame Schimmelpenninck, I was informed, is as amiable 
and accomplished as her husband is awkward and deficient; 
though well acquainted with his infidelities and profligacy, she 
is too virtuous to listen to revenge, and too generous not to for- 
give. She is, besides, said to be a lady of uncommon abilities, 
and of greater information than she chooses to display. She 
has never been the worshipper of Buonaparte, nor the friend of 
Talleyrand; she loved her country and detested its tyrants. — 
Had nhe been created a grand pensionary, she would certainly 
have swayed with more glory than her husband ; and been hailed 
by contemporaries, as well as posterity, if not a heroine, at 
least a patriot — a title which, in our times, though often prosti- 
tuted, so few have any claim to, and therefore so much the 
more valuable. 

When it was known at Paris that Schimmelpenninck had 
set out for his new sovereignty, no less than sixteen girls of 
the Palais Royal demanded passes for Holland. Being ques- 
tioned by Fouche as to their business in that country, they an- 
swered, that they intended to visit their friend the grand pen- 
sionary, in his new dominions. Fouche communicated to Tal- 
leyrand both their demands and their business, and asked his 
advice. He replied, " Send two, and those of whose vigilance 
and intelligence you are sure. Refuse, by all means, the other 
fourteen. Schimmelpenninck's time is precious; and were they 
at the Hague, he would neglect every thing for them. If they 
are fond of travelling, and are handsome and adroit, advise them 
to set out for London or St. Petersburg: and if they consent, 
order them to my office, and they shall be supplied, if approved 
of, both with instructions and with their travelling expenses." 
— Fouche answered his colleague " that they were in every re- 
spect the very reverse of his description ; that they seemed to 
have passed their lives in the lowest stage of infamy, and that 
they could neither read nor write." You have therefore no rea- 
son to fear that these belies will be sent to disseminate corrup- 
tion in your happy island. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUt). 137 

LETTER XXXIIL 

Paris, August 1805^ 
My lord, 

THE Italian subjects of Napoleone the first wei'e far from 
displaying the same zeal and the same gratitude for his paternal 
care and kindness, in taking upon himself the trouble of govern- 
ing them, as we good Parisians have done. Notwithstanding 
that a brigade of our police-agents and spies, drilled for years 
to applaud and to excite enthusiasm, proceeded as his advanced 
guard to raise the public spirit, the reception at Milan was cold, 
and every thing else but coi'dial or pleasing. This absence of 
duty did not escape his observation and resentment. Convinced, 
in his own naind, of the great blessing, prosperity, and liberty 
his victories and sovereignty have conferred on the inhabitants 
of the other side of the Alps, he ascribed their present passive 
or mutinous behaviour to the effect of foreign emissaries, from 
courts envious of his glory, and jealous of his authority. 

He suspected particularly England and Russia, of having 
selected this occasion of a solemnity that would complete his 
grandem', to humble his just pride. He had also some idea 
within himself that even Austria might indirectly have dared 
to influence the sentiments and conduct of her ci-devant sub- 
jects of Lombardy ; but his own high opinion of the awe which 
his very name inspired at Vienna, dispersed these thoughts, 
and his wrath fell entirely on the audacity of Pitt and Markoff. 
Strict orders were therefore issued to the prefects and commis- 
saries of police, to watch vigilantly all foreigners and strangers 
who might have arrived, or who should arrive, to witness the 
ceremony of the coronation, and to arrest instantly any one 
who should give the least reason to suppose that he was an ene- 
my, instead of an admirer of his imperial and royal majesty. 
He also commanded the prefects of his palace not to permit 
any persons to approach his sacred person, of whose morality 
iind politics they had not previously obtained a good account. 

T 



138 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

These great measures of security were not entirely un- 
necessary. Individual vengeance, and individual patriotism, 
sharpened their daggers, and, to use senator Rcederer's lan- 
guage, " were near transforming the most glorious day of re- 
joicing into a day of universal mourning." 

All our writers on the revolution agree, that in France, 
withiE|4he first twelve years after we had reconquered our lost 
liberty^ more conspiracies have been denounced, than during 
the six centuries of the most brilliant epoch of ancient and free 
Rome. These facts and avowals are speaking evidences of the 
internal tranquillity of our unfortunate country, of our affection 
to our rulers, and of the unanimity with which all the changes 
of government have been, notwithstanding our printed votes, re- 
ceived and approved. 

The frequency of conspiracies not only shews the discon- 
tent of the governed, but the insecurity and instability of the 
governors. This truth has not escaped Napoleone, who has 
therefore ordered an expeditious and secret justice to dispatch 
instantly the conspirators, and to bury the conspiracy in obli- 
vion, except when any grand coufi-d^etat is to be struck; or, to 
excite the passions of hatred, any proofs can be found, or must 
be fabricated, involving an inimical or rival foreign government 
in an odious plot. Since the farce which Mehee de la Touche 
exhibited, therefore, you have not read in the Moniteur either of 
the danger our emperor has incurred several times since, from 
the machinations of implacable or fanatical foes, or of the alarm 
these have caused his partisans. They have, indeed, been hint- 
ed at in some speeches of our public functionaries, and in some 
paragraphs of our public prints ; but their particulars will re- 
main concealed from historians, unless some one of those, com- 
posing our court, our fashionable, or our political circles, have 
taken the trouble of noting them down; but, even to those, they 
are but imperfectly or incorrectly known. 

Could the veracity of a Fouche, a Real, a Talleyrand, or a 
Duroc (the only members of this new secret and invisible tribu- 
nal for expediting conspirators) be depended upon, they would 
be the most authentic annalists of these and other interesting 
secret occurrences. 

What I intend relating to you on this subject, are circum- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 139 

stances such as they have been reported in our best-informed 
societies, by bur most inquisitive companions. Truth is cer- 
tainly the foundation of these anecdotes ; but their parts may 
be extenuated, diminished, altered, or exaggerated. Defective 
or incomplete as they are, I hope you will not judge them un- 
worthy of a page in a letter, considering the grand personage 
they concern, and the mystery with which he and his govern- 
ment encompass themselves, or in which they wrap up every 
thing, not agreeable, concerning them. 

A woman is said to have been at the head of the first plot 
against Napoleone, since his proclamation as an emperor of 
the French. She called herself Charlotte Encore; but her real 
name is not known. In 1803, she had lived and furnished a 
house at Abbeville, where she passed for a young widow of pro- 
perty, subsisting on her rents. About the same time, several 
other strangers settled there ; but though she visited the prin- 
cipal inhabitants, she never publicly had any connection with 
the new comers. 

In the summer of 1803, a girl at Amiens, some say a real 
enthusiast of Buonaparte's, but, accoi'ding to others, engaged 
by Madame Buonaparte to perform the parts she did, demand- 
ed, upon her knees, in a kind of paroxysm of joy, the happi- 
ness of embracing him; in doing which she fainted, or pretend- 
ed to faint away, and a pension of three thousand livres (1251.) 
was settled on her for her affection. 

Madame Encore, at Abbeville, to judge of her discourse and 
conversation, was also an ardent friend and well-wisher of the 
emperor; and when, in July, 1804, he passed through Abbe- 
ville, in his journey to the coast, she also threw herself at his 
feet, and declared that she would die content, if allowed the ho- 
nour of embracing him. To this he was going to assent, when 
Duroc stepped between them, seized her by the arm, and drag^ 
ged her to an adjoining room, whither Buonaparte, near faint- 
ing from the sudden alarm his friend's interference had occa- 
sioned, followed him, trembling. In the right sleeve of Ma- 
dame Encore's gown was found a stiletto, the point of which 
was poisoned. She was the same day transported to this capi- 
tal, under the inspection of Duroc, and imprisoned in the tem- 
ple. In her examination she denied having any accomplicesj 



401 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

and she expired on the rack without telHng even her name. 
The sub-prefect at Abbeville, the once famous Andre Dumont, 
was ordered to disseminate a report that she was shut up, as 
. insane, in a mad-house. 

In the strict search made by the police in the house occu- 
pied by her, no papers, or any indications were discovered, that 
involved other persons, or disclosed who she was, or what in- 
duced her to attempt such a rash action. Before the secret tri- 
bunal, she is reported to have said, " that being convinced of 
Buonaparte's being one of the greatest criminals that ever 
breathed upon the earth, she took upon herself the office of a 
volunteer executioner, having, with every other good or loyal 
person, a right to punish him, whom the law could not, or dared 
not reach." When, however, some repairs were made in the 
house at Abbeville by a new tenant, a bundle of papers was 
found, which proved that a M. Franquonville, and about thirty 
other individuals, many of whom were the late new comers 
there, had for six months been watching an opportunity to 
sieze Buonaparte in his journeys between Abbeville and Mon- 
treuil, and to carry him to some part of the coast, where a ves- 
sel was ready to sail for England with him. Had he, however, 
made resistance, he v/ould have been shot in France, and his 
assassins might have saved themselves in the vessel. 

The numerous escoi't that always, since he was an emperor, 
accompanied him, and particularly his concealment of the days 
of his journeys, pi-evented the execution of this plot; and Ma- 
dame Encore therefore took upon her to sacrifice herself for 
what she thought the welfare of her country. How Duroc sus- 
pected or discovered her intent is not known ; some say, that 
an anonymous letter informed him of it, while others assert 
that, in throwing herself at Buonaparte's feet, this prefect ob- 
served the steel through the sleeve of her muslin gown. Most 
of her associates were secretly executed ; some, however, were 
carried to Boulogne, and shot at the head of the army of Eng- 
land, as English spies. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 141 

LETTER XXXIV. 

Paris ^ August 1805. 
Mt lord, 

AFTER the discovery of Charlotte Encore's attempt, Buo- 
naparte, who hitherto had flattered himself that he possessed 
the good wishes, if not the affection, of his female subjects, made 
a regulation, according to which no women, who have not pre- 
viously given in their names to the prefects of his palaces, and 
obtained previous permission, can approach his person, or throw 
themselves at his feet, without incurring his displeasure, and 
even arrest. Of this imperial decree, ladies, both of the capi- 
tal, and of the provinces, when he travels, are officially inform- 
ed. Notwithstanding this precaution, he was a second time, last 
spring, at Lyons, near falling the victim of the vengeance or 
malice of a female. 

In his journey to be crowned King of Italy, he occupied 
his uncle's episcopal palace at Lyons, during the forty-eight 
hours he remained there. Most of the persons of both sexes, 
composing the household of cardinal Fesch, were from his own 
country, Corsica; among these was one of the name of Pau- 
line Riotti, who inspected the economy of the kitchens. It is 
Buonaparte's custom to take a dish of chocolate in the fore- 
noon, which she, on the morning of his departure, against her 
ciistom, but under pretence of knowing the taste of the family, 
desired to prepare. One of the cooks observed that she mixed 
with it something from her pocket, but without saying a word 
to her that indicated suspicion, he warned Buonaparte, in a note 
delivered to a page, to be upon his guard. When the cham- 
berlain carried in the chocolate, Napoleone ordered the person 
who had prepared it to be brought before him. This being 
told Pauline, she fainted away, after having first drank the I'e- 
maining contents of the chocolate pot. Her convulsions soon 
indicated that she was poisoned, and, notwithstanding the en- 
deavours of Buonaparte's physician Corvisart, she expired with- 
in an hour, protesting that her crime was an act of revenge 



142 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

against Napoleone, who had seduced her when young, under 
a promise of marriage ; but who, since his elevation, had not 
only neglected her, but reduced her to despair, by refusing an 
honest support for herself and her child, sufficient to preserve 
her from the degradation of servitude. Cardinal Fesch received 
a severe reprimand for admitting among his domestics indivi- 
duals with whose former lives he was not better acquainted ; and 
the same day he dismissed every Corsican in his service. The 
cook was, with the reward of a pension, made a member of the 
legion of honour, and it was given out by Corvisart that Pau- 
line died insane. 

Within three weeks after this occurrence, Buonaparte was 
at Milan, again exposed to an imminent danger. According to 
his commands, the vigilance of the police had been very strict, 
and even severe. All strangers who could not give the most 
satisfactory account of themselves, had either been sent out of 
the country, or were imprisoned. He never went out but strong- 
ly attended, and during his audiences the most trusty officers 
always surrounded him ; these precautions increased in propor- 
tion as the day of his coronation approached. On the morning 
of that day, about nine o'clock, when full-dressed in his impe- 
rial and royal robes, and all the grand officers of state by his 
side, a paper was delivered to him by his chamberlain Talley- 
rand, a nephew of the minister. The instant he had read it, 
he flew into the arms of Berthier, exclaiming, " My friend, I 
am betrayed; are you among the number of conspirators? Jour- 
dan, Lasnes, Mortier, Bessieres, St. Cyr, are you also forsaking 
your friend and benefactor?" They all instantly encompassed 
him, begging that he would calm himself; that they were all 
what they always had been, dutiful and faithful subjects. " But 
read this paper from my prefect Salmatoris; he says that if I 
move a step I may cease to live, as the assassins are near me, 
as well as before me." 

The commander of his guard then entered with fifty grena- 
diers, their bayonets fixed, bringing with them a prisoner, who 
pointed out four individuals not far from Buonaparte's person, 
two of whom were Italian officers of the royal Italian guard, 
and two were dressed in Swiss uniforms. They were all imme- 
diately seized, and in their boots were found three daggers. One 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 143 

of those in Swiss regimentals exclaimed, before he was taken, 
" Tremble, tyrant of my country ! Thousands of the descend- 
ants of William Tell have, with me, sworn your destruction. 
You escape this day ; but the just vengeance of outraged hu- 
manity follows you like your shade. Depend upon it, an un- 
timely end is irremediably reserved for you." So saying, he 
pierced his own heart, and fell a corpse into the arms of the 
grenadiers, who came to arrest him. 

This incident suspended the procession to the cathedral for 
an hour, when Berthier announced that the conspirators were 
punished. Buonaparte evinced on this occasion the same ab- 
sence of mind and of courage as on the 9th of November 1799, 
when Arena and other deputies drew their daggers against him 
at St. Cloud. As this scene did not redound much to the ho* 
nour of the Emperor and King, all mention of the conspiracy 
was severely prohibited, and the deputations, ready to congra- 
tulate him on his escape, were dispersed to attend their other 
duties. 

The conspirators are stated to have been four young men, 
who had lost their parents and fortunes by the revolutions ef- 
fected by Buonaparte in Italy and Switzerland, and who had 
sworn fidelity to each other, and to avenge their individual 
wrongs, with the injuries of their countries at the same time. 
They were all prepared and resigned to die, expecting to be cut 
to pieces the moment Buonaparte fell by their hands ; but one 
of the Italians, rather superstitious, had, before he went to the 
drawing-room, confessed, and received absolution from a priest, 
whom he knew to be an enemy of Buonaparte: but the priest, 
in hope of reward, disclosed the conspiracy to the master of the 
ceremonies, Salmatoris. The three surviving conspirators are 
said to have been literally torn to pieces by the engines of tor-, 
ture, and the priest was shot for having given absolution to aa 
assassin, and for having concealed his knowledge of the plot 
an hour after he was acquainted with it. Even Salmatoris had 
some difficulty to avoid being disgraced, for having written a terr 
rifying note, which had exposed the Emperor's weakness, and 
shown that his life was dearer to him at the head of empires 
than when only at the head of armies. 

My narrative of this event I have from an. officer present. 



144 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

whose veracity I can guarantee. He also informed me that, in 
consequence of it, all the officers of the Swiss brigades in the 
French service, that were quartered or encamped in Italy, were 
to the number of near fifty dismissed at once. Of the Italian 
guards, every officer who was known to have suffered any losses 
by the new order of things in his country was ordered to re- 
sign, if he would not enter into the regiments of the line. 

Whatever the police agents did to prevent it, and in spite of 
some unjust and cruel chastisement, Buonaparte :ontinued, dur- 
ing his stay in Italy, an object of ridicule in conversation as 
well as in pamphlets and caricatures. One of these represent- 
ed him in the ragged garb of a Sans Culotte, pale and trem- 
bling, on his knees, with bewildered looks, and his hair standing 
upright on his head, like pointed horns, tearing the map of the 
world to pieces, and, to save his life, offering each of his ge- 
nerals a slice, who in return regarded him with looks of con- 
tempt, mixed with pity. 

I have just heard of a new plot, or rather a league, against 
Buonaparte's ambition. At its head the generals Jourdan, 
Macdonald, Le Courbe and Dessolles are placed, though many 
less victorious generals and officers, civil as well as military, are 
reported to be its members. Their object is not to remove or 
displace Buonaparte as an Emperor of the French ; on the con- 
trary, they offer their lives to strengthen his authority, and to 
resist his enemies; but they ask and advise him to renounce for 
himself, for his relations, and for France, all possessions on the 
Italian side of the Alps, as the only means to establish a perma- 
nent peace, and to avoid a war with other states, whose safety 
is endangered by our great encroachments. A mutinous kind 
of address to this effect has been sent to the camp of Boulogne, 
and to all other encampments of our troops, that those generals 
and other military persons there, who chose, might both see the 
object and the intent of the associates. It is reported that Buo- 
naparte ordered it to be burnt by the hands of the common exe- 
cutioner at Boulogne ; that sixteen officers there, who had sub- 
scribed their names in approbation of tilt address, were broken, 
and dismissed with disgrace ; that Jourdan is deprived of his 
command in Italy, and ordered to render an account of his con- 
duct to the emperor. Dessolles is also said to be dismissed. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 145 

and with Macdonald, Le Courbe, and eighty-four others his 
Majesty's subjects, whose names appeared under the remon- 
strance, or petition (as some call it) exiled to different depart- 
ments of this country, where they are to expect their sove- 
reign's farther determination, and in the mean time remain un- 
der the inspection and responsibility of his constituted authori- 
ties and commissaries of police. 

As it is as dangerous to inquire as to converse on this and 
other subjects, which the mysterious policy of our government 
condemns to silence or oblivion, I have not yet been able to ga- 
ther any rhore or better information concei'ning this league, ox' 
unconstitutional opposition to the executive power; but as I am 
intimate with one of the actors, should he have an opportunity, 
he will certainly Avrite to me at full lenth, and be very explicit. 



LETTER XXXV. 

Paris., August 1805, 



My 1.0RD, 



I BELIEVE I have before remarked that, under the go- 
vernment of Buonaparte, causes relatively the most insignificant 
have frequently produced effects of the greatest consequence. 
A capricious or whimsical character, swaying with unlimited 
power, is certainly the most dangerous guardian of the prero- 
gatives of sovereignty, as well as of the rights and liberties of 
the people. That Buonaparte is as vain and fickle as a coquette, 
as obstinate as a mule, and equally audacious and um-elenting, 
every one, who has witnessed his actions or meditated on his 
transactions, must be convinced. The least opposition irritates 
his pride, and he determines and commands in a moment of 
impatience or vivacity what may cause the misery of millions 
for ages, and perhaps his own repentance for years. 

When Buonaparte was officially informed by his ambassa- 
.dor at Vienna, the young La Rochefoucault, that the emperor of 
Germany had declined being one of his grand officers of the le^ 



146 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

gion of honour, he flew into a rage, and used against this prince 
the most gross, vulgar, and unbecoming language. I have heard 
it said, that he went so far as to say, " Well, Francis II is tired 
of reigning. I hope to have strength enough to carry a third 
crown; He who dares refuse to be and continue my equal 
shall soon as a vassal think hittiself honoured with the regard 
which as a master I may condescend, from compassion, to be- 
stow on him.*' Though forty-eight hours had elapsed after this 
furious sally, before he met with the Austrian ambassador, 
count Cobentzel, his passion was still so furious that, from his 
grossness and violence, all the members of the diplomatic corps 
trembled both for this their respectable member, and for the ho- 
nour of our nation thus represented. 

When the diplomatic audience was over, he said to Talley- 
rand in a commanding and harsh tone of voice, in the presence 
of all his aid-du-camps and generals, '' Write this afternoon, 
by an extraordinary courier, to my minister at Genoa, Salicetti, 
to prepare the Doge and the people for the immediate incorpo- 
ration of the Ligurian Republic with my empire. Should Aus- 
tria dare to murmur, I shall within three months also incorporate 
the ci-devant Republic of Venice with my kingdom of Italy !" — 
" But — but — Sire !" uttered the minister, trembling, " There ex- 
ists no but, and I will listen to no but," interrupted his Majes- 
ty "Obey my orders without further discussions. Should 

Austria dare to arm, I shall, befoi'e next Christmas, make Vien- 
na the head quarters of a fiftieth military division. In an hour 
I expect you with the dispatches ready for Salicetti." 

This Salicetti is a Corsican of a respectable family, born at 
Bastia, in 1758, and it was he, who, during the siege of Toulon 
in 1793, introduced his countryman, Napoleone Buonaparte, his 
present sovereign, to the acquaintance of Barras; an occurrence 
which has since produced consequences so terribly notorious. 

Before the Revolution, an advocate of the supei'ior council 
of Corsica, he was elected a member to the first National As- 
sembly, where, on the 30th of November 1789, he pressed the 
decree which declared the island of Corsica an integral part of 
the French monarchy. In 1792 he was sent by his fellow-ci- 
tizens as a deputy to the National Convention, where he joined 
the terrorist faction, and voted for the death of his King. In 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 147 

May 1793, he was in Corsica, and violently opposed the parti- 
sans of general Paoli, Obliged, to save himself, to make his es- 
cape in August from that island, he joined the army of general 
Carteaux, then marching against the Marseilles insurgents, 
whence he was sent by the National Convention with Barras, 
Gasparin, Robespierre the younger, and Ricrod, as a represen- 
tative of the people to the army before Toulon, where, as well 
as at Marseilles, he shared in all the atrocities committed by his 
colleagues and by Buonaparte ; for which, after the death of the 
Robespierres, he was arrested with him as a terrorist. 

He had not known Buonaparte much in Corsica, but finding 
him and his family in great distress, with all the other Corsican 
refugees, and observing his adroitness as a captain of artillery, he 
recommended him to Barras, and upon their representation to 
the comiTiittee of Public Safety, he was promoted to a chef de 
brigade^ or colonel. In 1796, when Barras gave Buonaparte 
the command of the g.rmy of Italy, Salicetti was appointed a 
commissary of government to the same army, and in that capa- 
city behaved with the greatest insolence towards all the princes 
of Italy, and most so towards the duke of Modena, with whom 
he and Buonaparte signed a treaty of neutrality, for which they 
received a large sum in ready money ; but shortly afterwards 
the duchy was again invaded, and an attempt made to surprise 
and seize the duke. In 1797 he was chosen a member of the 
Council of Five Hundred, where he always continued a sup- 
porter of violent measures. 

When in 1799 his former protege, Buonaparte, was pro- 
claimed a first Consul, Salicetti desired to be placed in the Con- 
servative senate ; but his familiarity displeased Napoleone, who 
made him first a commercial agent, and afterwards a minister 
to the Ligurian Republic, so as to keep him at a distance. Du- 
ring his several missions, he has amassed a fortune, calculated, 
at the lowest, at six millions of livres (250,0001.) 

The order Salicetti received to prepare the incorporation of 
Genoa with France, would not, without the presence of our 
troops, have been very easy to execute, particularly as he, six 
months before, had prevailed on the Doge and the senate to re- 
sign all sovereignty to L^cien Buonaparte, under the title of a 
grand duke of Genoa, 



148 SECRET HISTORY 01" THE 

The cause of Napoleone's change of opinion with regard to 
his brother Lucien was, that the latter would not separate from 
a wife he loved; but preferred domestic happiness to external 
splendor, frequently accompanied with internal misery. So 
that this act of incorporation of the Ligurian Republic, in fact, 
' originated, notwithstanding the great and deep calculations of 
our profound politicians and political schemers, in nothing else 
but in the keeping of a wife and in the refusal of a riband. 

That corruption, seduction, and menaces seconded the in- 
trigues and bayonets which convinced the Ligurian government 
of the honour sxid advantage of becoming subjects of Buonaparte, 
I have not the least doubt; but that the Doge, Jerome Durazzb, 
and the senators Morchio, Maglione, Travega, Magheila, Rog- 
gieri, Taddei, Balby, and Langlade, sold the independence of 
their country for ten millions of livres (430,0001.) though it has 
been positively asserted, I can hardly believe ; and indeed mo- 
ney was as little necessary, as resistance would have been una- 
vailing; all the forts and strong positions being in the occupa- 
tion of our troops. A general officer, present when the Doge 
of Genoa, at the head of the Ligurian deputation, offered Buona- 
parte their homage at Milan, and exchanged liberty for bond- 
age, assured me that this ci-devant chief magistrace spoke with 
a faltering voice, and with tears in his eyes; and that indigna- 
tion was read on the countenance of every member of the de- 
putation thus forced to prostitute their rights as citizens, and 
to vilify their sentiments as patriots. 

When Salicetti, with his secretary Milhaud, had arranged 
this honourable affair, they set out from Genoa to announce to 
Buonaparte, at Milan, their success. Not above a league from 
the former city, their carriage was stopped, their persons strip- 
ped, and their papers and effects seized by a gang, called in 
the country, the gang of patriotic robbers, commanded by 
Mulieno. This chief is a descendant of a good Genoese fami- 
ly, proscribed by France, and the men under him are all above 
the common class of people. They never commit any murders, 
nor do they rob any but Frenchmen, or Italians, known to be 
adherents of the French party. Their spoils they distribute 
among those of their countrymen, who like themselves have 
suffered from the revolutions in Italy within these last nine 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 149 

years. They usually send the amount destined to relieve these 
persons to the curates of the several parishes, signifying in what 
manner it is to be employed. Their conduct has procured 
them many friends among the low and the poor, and though 
frequently pursued by our gens d'armes^ they have hitherto al- 
ways escaped. The papers captured by them on this occasion 
from Salicetti are said to be of a most curious nature, and throw 
great light on Buonaparte's future views on Italy. The ori- 
ginal act of consent of the Ligurian government to the incor- 
poration with France was also in this number. It is reported 
that they were deposited with the Austrian minister at Genoa, 
who found means to forward them to his court; and it is sup- 
posed that their contents did not a little hasten the present 
movements of the emperor of Gei'many. 

Another gang, known under the appellation of patriotic 
AVENGERS, also desolatcs the Ligurian Republic. They never 
rob, but always murder those whom they consider as enemies 
of their country. Many of our officers, and even our sentries 
on duty, have been wounded or killed by them ; and after dark, 
therefore, no Frenchman dares walk out unattended. Their 
chief is supposed to be a ci-devant abbe Sagati, considered a 
political as well as religious fanatic. In consequence of the 
deeds of these patriotic 'avengers, Buonaparte's first act as a so- 
vereign of Liguria was the establishment of special military 
commissions, and a law prohibiting, under pain of death, every 
person from carrying arms, who could not sheAv a Avintten per- 
mission of our commissary of police. Robbers and assassins 
are unfortunately common to all nations, and all people of all 
ages ; but those of the above description are only the produc- 
tion and progeny of revolutionary and troublesome times. They 
pride themselves, instead of violating the laws, on supplying 
their inefficacy and counteracting their partiality. 



150 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 



LETTER XXXVI. 

Paris, Sefitember 1805. 



My LORD) 



BUONAPARTE is now knight of more royal orders 
than any sovereign in Europe, and were he to put them on all 
at once, their ribands would form stuff enough for a light sum- 
mer coat, of as many different colours as the rainbow. The 
kings of Spain, of Naples, of Prussia, of Portugal, and of Etru- 
ria, have admitted him a knight-companion, as well as the elec- 
tors of Bavaria, Hesse and Baden, and the pope of Rome. In 
return he has appointed these princes his grand officers of his 
Legion of Honour, the highest rank of his newly -instituted im- 
perial order. It is even said, that some of these sovereigns 
have been honoured by him with the grand star and broad ri- 
band of the order of his Iron Crown of the kingdom of Italy. 

Before Napoleone's departure for Milan last spring, Talley- 
rand intimated to the members of the foreign diplomatic corps 
here, that their presence would be agreeable to the emperor of 
the French, at his coronation at Milan, as king of Italy. In 
the preceding summer, a similar hint, or order, had been given 
by him for a diplomatic trip to Aix-la-Chapelle, and all their 
excellencies set a packing instantly ; but some legitimate sove- 
reigns, having since discovered that it was indecent for their 
representatives to be crowding the suite of an insolently and 
proudly travelling usurper, under different pretences declined 
the honour of the invitation and journey to Italy. It would, be- 
sides, have been pleasant enough to have witnessed the ambas- 
sadors of Austria and Prussia, whose sovereigns had not ac- 
knowledged Buonaparte's right to his assumed title of king of 
Italy, indirectly approving it, by figuring at the solemnity which 
inaugurated him as such. Of this inconsistency and impropri- 
ety Talleyrand was well aware ; but audacity on one side, and 
endurance and submission on the other, had so often disregard- 
ed these considerations before, that he saw no indelicacy or im- 
pertinence in the proposal. His master had, however, the gra- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 151 

tification to see at his levee, and in his wife's drawing-room, 
the ambassadors of Spain, Naples, Portugal, and Bavaria, who 
laid at the imperial and royal feet the Order-decorations of 
their own princes, to the no little entertainment of his imperial 
and royal majesty, and to the great edification of his dutiful 
subjects, on the other side of the Alps. 

The expenses of Buonaparte's journey to Milan, and his 
coronation there (including also those of his attendants, from 
France) amounted to no less a sum than fifteen millions of 
livres (625,0001,); of which, one hundred and fifty thousand 
livres (60001.) were laid out in fireworks; double that sum in 
decorations of the royal palace and the cathedral; and three 
millions of livres (125,0001.) in presents to different generals, 
grand officers, deputations, 8cc. The poor also shared his boun- 
ty; medals to the value of fifty thousand livres (21001.) were 
thrown out among them on the day of the ceremony, besides 
an equal sum given by Madame Napoleone to the hospitals 
and orphan houses. These last have a kind of hereditary ov 
family claim on the purse of our sovereign ; their parents were 
the victims of the Emperor's first step towards glory and gran- 
deur. 

Another three millions of livres were expended for the 
march of troops from France to form pleasure camps in Italy ; 
and four millions more were requisite for the forming and sup- 
port of these encampments during two months; and the Empe- 
ror distributed among the officers and men composing them, 
two millions-worth of rings, watches, snuff-boxes, portraits set 
with diamonds, stars, and other trinkets, as evidences of his 
Majesty's satisfaction with their behaviour, presence, and per- 
formances. 

These troops were under the command of Buonaparte's field- 
marshal, Jourdan, a general often mentioned in the military 
annals of our revolutionary war. During the latter part of the 
American war, he served under general Rochambeau as a 
common soldier, and obtained in 1783, after the peace, his dis- 
charge. He then turned pedlar, in which situation the revo- 
lution found him. He had also married, for her fortune, a 
lame daughter of a tailor, who brought him a fortune of two 
thousand livres (841,) from whom he has since been divorced, 



152 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

leaving her to shift for herself as she can, in a small milliner's 
shop at Limoges, where her husband was born in 176.3. 

Jourdan was among the first members and pillars of the Ja- 
cobin club, organized in his native town, which procured him 
rapid promotion in the national guards, of whom in 1792 he 
was already a colonel. His known love of liberty and equality 
induced the committee of Public Safety in 1793 to appoint him 
to the chief command of the armies of Ardennes and of the 
North, instead of Lamarche and Houchard. On the I7th of 
October, the same year, he gained the victory of Wattignies, 
which obliged the united forces of Austria, Prussia, and Ger- 
many, to raise the siege of Maubeuge. The jealous republican 
government, in reward, deposed him, and appointed Pichegru 
his successor, which was the origin of that enmity and mialig- 
nity with which Jourdan pursued this unfortunate general 
even to his grave. He never forgave Pichegru the acceptance 
of a command which he could not decline without risking his 
life; and when he should have avenged his disgrace on the real 
causes of it, he chose to resent it on him, who like himself 
was merely an instrument, or a slave in the hands and under 
the whip of a tyrannical power. 

After the imprisonment of General Hoche in March 1794, 
Jourdan succeeded him as chief of the army of the Moselle. 
In June he joined, with thirty thousand men, the right wing 
of the army of the North, forming a new one under the 
name of the army of the Sambre and Meuse. On the 16th of 
the same month he gained a complete victory over the Prince 
of Cobourg, who tried to raise the siege of Charleroy. This 
battle, which was fought near Trasegnies, is nevertheless com- 
monly called the battle of Fleuries. After Charleroy had sur- 
rendered on the 25th, Jourdan and his army were ordered to 
act under the direction of General Pichegru, who had drawn 
the plan of that brilliant campaign. Always envious of this ge- 
neral, Jourdan did every thing to retard his progress; and at 
last intrigued so well, that the army of the Sambre and the 
Meuse Avas separated from that of the North. 

With the former of these armies, Jourdan pursued the 
retreating confederates, and after driving them from different 
stEinds and positions, he repulsed them to the banks of the 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 153 

Rhine, which river they were obliged to pass. Here ended his 
successes this year; successes that were not obtained without 
great loss on our side. 

Jourdan began the campaigns of 1795 and 1796 with equal 
brilliancy, and ended them with equal disgrace. After pene- 
trating into Germany with troops as numerous as well disci- 
plined, he was defeated at the end of them by Archduke Charles, 
and retreated always with such precipitation, and in such con- 
fusion, that it looked more like the flight of a disorderly rabble 
than the retreat of regular troops; and had not Moreau in 1796 
kept the enemy in awe, few of Jourdan's officers or men would 
again have seen France; for the inhabitants of Franconia rose 
on these marauders, and cut them to pieces, wherever they 
could surprise or way-lay them. 

In 1797, as a member of the council of Five Hundred, he 
headed the Jacobin faction, against the moderate party, of which 
Pichegru was a chief; and he had the cowardly vengeance of 
base rivalry, to pride himself upon having procured the trans- 
portation of that patriotic general to Cayenne. In 1799 he 
again assumed the command of the army of Alsace and of 
Switzerland; but he crossed the Rhine and penetrated into Sua- 
bia, only to be' again routed by the Archduke Charles, and to 
repass this river in disorder. Under the necessity of resigning 
as a general in chief, he returned to the council of Five Hun- 
dred, more violent than ever, and provoked there the most op- 
pressive measures against his fellow-citizens. Previous to the 
revolution effected by Buonaparte in November that year, he 
had entered with Garreau and Santerre into a conspiracy, the 
object of which was to restore the reign of terror, and to pre- 
vent which Buonaparte said he made those changes which 
placed him at the head of government. It was even printed in 
the papers of that period, which Buonaparte on the 10th of 
November addressed to the then deputy of Mayenne, Prevost: 
" If the plot entered into by Jourdan and others, and of which 
they have not blushed to propose to me the execution, had not 
been defeated, they would have surrounded the place of your 
sitting, and, to crush all future opposition, ordered a number of 
deputies to be massacred. That done, they were to establish 
the sanguinary despotism of the reign of terror." But whethei' 

X 



154 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

such was Jourdan's project, or whether it was merely given 
out to be such by the consular faction, to extenuate their own 
usurpation, he certainly had connected himself with the most 
guilty and contemptible of the former terrorists, and drew upon 
himself by such conduct the hatred and blame even of those, 
whose opinion had long been suspended on his account. 

General Jourdan was among those terrorists, whom the 
consular government condemned to transportation; but after 
several interviews with Buonaparte he was not only pardoned, 
but made a counsellor of state of the military section ; and af^ 
terwards, in 1801, an administrator general of Piedmont, where 
he was replaced by general Menou in 1803, being himself en- 
trusted with the command in Italy. This place he has pre- 
served until last month, when he was ordered to resign it to 
Massena, with whom he had a quarrel, and would have fought 
him in a duel, had not the viceroy Eu genius de Beauharnois 
put him under arrest and ordered him back hither, where he is 
daily expected. If Massena's report to Buonaparte be true, the 
army of Italy was very far from being as orderly and numerous 
as Jourdan's assertions would have induced us to believe. But 
this accusation of a rival must be listened to with caution ; be- 
cause, should Massena meet with a repulse, he will no doubt 
make use of it as an apology ; and should he be victorious, hold 
it out as a claim for more honour and praise. 

The same doubts which still continue of Jourdan's political 
opinions remain also with regard to his military capacity. But 
the unanimous declaration of those who have served under his 
orders as a general must silence both his blind« admirers and 
unjust slanderers. They all allow him some military ability: 
he combines and prepares in the cabinet a plan of defence and 
attack with method and intelligence ; but he does not possess 
the quick coufi-d'odl^ and that promptitude which perceives, and 
rectifies accordingly, an error on the field of battle. If on the 
day of action some accident or some manoeuvre occurs which 
was not foreseen by him, his dull and heavy genius does not 
enable him to alter instantly his dispositions, or to remedy er- 
rors, misfortunes, or improvidence. This kind of talent, and 
this kind of absence of talent, explain equally the causes of his 
advantages, as well as the origin of his frequent disasters. No- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 155 

body denies him courage, but with most of our other republi- 
can generals he has never been careful of the lives of the troops 
under him. I have heard an officer of superior talents and rank 
assert, in the presence of Carnot, that the number of wounded 
and killed under Jourdan, when victorious, frequently surpassed 
the number of enemies he had defeated. I fear it is too true 
that we are as much, if not more, indebted for our successes to 
the superior number as to the superior valour of our troops. 

Jovii'dan is, with regard to foi'tune, one of our poorest repub- 
lican generals, who have headed armies. He has not, during 
all his campaigns, collected more than a capital of eight mil- 
•lions of livres (333,0001.), a mere trifle compared to the fifty 
millions of Massena, the sixty millions of Le Clerc, the forty 
millions of Murat, and the thirty-six millions of Augereau ; not 
to mention the hundred of millions of Buonaparte. It is also 
true that Jourdan is a gambler and a debauch^, fond of cards, 
dice, and women ; and that in Italy, except two hours in twen- 
ty-four allotted to business, he passed the remainder of his time 
either at the gambling-tables, or in the boudoirs of his seraglio 
—I say seraglio, because he kept in the extensive house joining 
his palace, as governor and commander, ten women; three 
French, three Italians, two Germans, and two Irish or English 
girls. He supported them all in style ; but they were his slaves, 
and he was their sultan, whose official mutes (his aides-de-camp) 
both watched them, and, if necessary, chastised them. 



LETTER XXXVII. 

Paris J September 1805. 



My lord, 



I CAN truly defy the world to produce a corps of such an he- 
terogeneous composition as our Conservative Senate, when I ex- 
cept the members composing Buonaparte's Legion of^Honour. 
Some'of our senators have been tailors, apothecaries, merchants, 
chymists, quacks, physicians, barbers, bankers, soldiers, drum- 



1^6 SECRET HIST6RY OF THE 

mers, dukes, shopkeepers, mountebanks, abbes, generals, sa- 
vans, friars, ambassadors, counsellors, or presidents of parlia- 
ment, admirals, barristers, bishops, sailors, attornies, authors, 
barons, spies, painters, professors, ministers, Sans Culottes, 
atheists, stone-masons, robbers, mathematicians, philosophers, 
regicides, and a long et cxtera. Any person reading through 
the official list of the members of the senate, and who is ac- 
quainted with their former situations in life, may be convinced 
of this truth. Should he even be ignorant of them, iQt him but 
inquire, with the list in his hand, in any of our fashionable or 
political circles, he will meet with but few persons who are not 
able or willing to remove his doubts, or to gratify his curiosity. 
There are not many of them whom it is possible to elevate, but 
those are still more nutnerous whom it is impossible to degrade. 
Their past lives, vices, errors, or crimes, have settled their cha- 
racters and reputation ; and they must live and die in statu quo, 
either as fools, or as knaves, and, perhaps, as both. 

I do not mean to say that they are all criminals, or all equal- 
ly criminal, if insurrection against lawful authority, and obedi- 
ence to usurped tyranny, are not to be considered as crimes ; 
but there are few indeed who can lay their hands on their bo- 
soms, and say, vitavi refiendere vero. Some of them, as a La- 
grange, Berthollet, Chaptal, La Place, Fran9ois de Neuf Cha- 
teau, Tronchet, Monge, Lacepede, and Bougainville, are cer- 
tainly men of talents ; but others, as a Porcher, Resnier, Vimar, 
Auber, Pere, Sers, Vernier, Vien, Villetard, Tascher, Rigal, 
Bacchiocchi, Beviere, Beauharnois, de Luynes (a ci-devant d\x\iQ, 
known under the name of Le Gros Cochon), nature never des- 
tined but to figure among those half idiots and half imbeciles, 
who are, as it Vt^ere, . intermedial between the brute and human 
creation, 

Sieyes, Cabanis, Garran Coulon, Lecouteul, Canteleu, Lenoin 
Laroche, Volney, Gregoire, Emmery, Joucourt, Boissy d'An- 
glas, Fouche, and Roederer, form another class. Some of them 
regicides, others assassins and plunderers, but all intriguers, 
whose machinations date from the beginning of the revolution. 
They are all men of parts, of more or less knowledge, and of 
great presumption. As to their morahty, it is on a level with 
their religion and loyalty. They betrayed their king, and had 
denied their God already in 1789. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 157 

After these come some others, who agam have neither ta- 
lents to boast of, nor crimes of which they have to be ashamed. 
They have but little pretention to genius, none to consistency, 
and their honesty equals their capacity. They joined our po- 
litical revolution, as they might have done a religious proces- 
sion. It was at that time a fashion; and they applauded our re- 
volutionary innovations, as they would have done the introduc- 
tion of a new opera, of a new tragedy, of a new comedy, or of 
a new farce. To this fraternity appertain a ci-devant Count de- 
Stult-Tracy, Dubois, — Dubay, Kellerman, Lambrechts, Leraer- 
cier, Pleville, — Le Pelley, Clement de Ris, Peregeaux, Berthc- 
lemy, Vaubois, Perignon, d'Agier, Abrial, de Belloy, Delannoy, 
Aboville, and St. Martin La Motte. 

Such are the characteristics of men, whose senatus consuUum 
bestows an emperor on France, a king on Italy, makes of prin- 
cipalities departments of a republic, and transforms republics 
into provinces or principalities. To shew the absurdly fickle 
and ridiculously absurd appellations of our shamefully pervert- 
ed institutions, this senate was called the Conservative Senate; 
that is to say, it was to preserve the republican consular consti- 
tution in its integrity, both against the encroachments of the ex- 
ecutive and fegislative power, both against the manoeuvres of 
the factious, the plots of the royalists or monarchists, and the 
clamours of a populace of levellers. — But during the five years 
that these honest wiseacres have been preserving, every thing 
has perished, — the republic, the consuls, free discussions, free 
election, the political liberty, and the liberty of the press — all 
— all ai'e found no where but in old, useless, and rejected codes. 
They have, however, in a truly fiatriotic manner, taken care of 
their own dear selves. Their salaries are more than doubled 
since 1799. 

Besides, mock senators, mock prsetors, mock quxstors, other 
nomina libertatis are revived, so as to make the loss of the reali- 
ty so much the more galling. We have also two curious com- 
missions ; one called " the Senatorial Commission of Personal 
Liberty," and the other, " the Senatorial Commission of the Li- 
berty of the Press." — The imprisonment without cause, and 
transportation without trial, of thousands of persons of both 
sexes, weekly, shew the grand adviintages which arise from the 



158 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

former of these commissions; and the contents of our new books, 
and daily prints, evince the utility-and liberaUty of the latter. 

But from the past conduct of these our senators, members 
of these commissions, one may easily conclude what is to be 
expected in future from their justice and patriotism. Lenoin 
Laroche, at the head of the one, was formerly an advocate of 
some practice, but attended more to politics than to the busi- 
ness of his clients, and was, therefore, at the end of the session 
of the first assembly, of which he was a member, forced, for 
subsistence, to become the editor of an insignificant journal. — 
Here he preached licentiousness, under the name of liberty, 
and the Agrarian law in recommending equality. A prudent 
courtier of all systems in fashion, and of all factions in power, 
he escaped proscription, though not accusation of having 
shared in the national robberies. A short time, in the summer 
1797, after the dismissal of Cochon, he acted as a minister of 
police, and in 1798 the jacobins elected him a member of the 
Council of Ancients, where he, with other deputies, sold him- 
self to Buonaparte, and was in return rewarded with a place in 
the senate. Under monarchy, he was a republican — and under 
a republic, he extolled monarchical institutions. He wished to 
be singular, and to be rich. Among so many shocking origi- 
nals, however, he was not distinguished; and among so many 
philosophical marauders, he had no opportunity to pillage above 
two millions of livres (84,0001.) This friend of liberty is now 
one of the most despotic senators ; and this lover of equality 
never answers when spoken to, if not addressed as ' his Excel- 
lency,' or ' Monseigncur.' 

Boissy d'Anglas, another member of this commission, was, 
before the revolution, a steward to Louis XVIH, when Mon- 
sieur; and, in 1789, was chosen a deputy of the first assembly, 
where he joined the factious, and in his speeches and writings 
defended all the enormities that dishonoured the beginning as 
well as the end of the revolution. A member afterwards of 
the National Convention, he was sent in mission to Lyons, 
where, instead of healing the wounds of the inhabitants, he in- 
flicted new ones. When, in March 15th, 1796, in the Council 
of Five Hundred, he pronounced the oath of hatred to royalty, 
he added, that (his oath ii>as in fas heart, otherwise no power 



eOURT OF ST. CLOUD. 159 

upon earth could have forced him to take it ; and he is now a 
sworn subject of Napoleorie the First ! He pronounced the pa- 
negyric of Robespierre, and the apotheosis of Marat. " Th« 
soul," said he, " was moved and elevated, in hearing Robespierre 
speak of the Supreme Being with philosophical ideas, embellish- 
ed by eloquence ;" and he signed the removal of the ashes of 
Marat to the temple consecrated to humanity .'-—la September, 
1797, he was, as a royalist, condemned to transportation by the 
Directory; but, in 1799, Buonaparte recalled him, made him 
first a tribune, and afterwards a senator. 

Boissy d'Anglas, though an apologist of robbers and assasv 
sins, has neither murdered nor plundered; but, though he has 
not enriched himself, he has assisted in ruining all his formei' 
protectors, benefactors, and friends. 

Sers, a third member of this commission, was, before the 
revolution, a bankrupt merchant at Bourdeaux, but in 1791 a 
municipal officer of the same city, and sent as a deputy to the 
National Assembly, where he attempted to rise from the clouds 
that encompassed his heavy genius, by a motion for pulling 
down all the statues of kings throughout France. He seconded 
another motion of Buonaparte's prefect, Jean Debrie, to decree 
a corps of tyrannicides, destined to murder all emperors, kings, 
and princes. At the club of the jacobins at Bourdeaux he 
prided himself on having caused the arrest and death of three 
hundred aristocrats; and boasted that he never went out with- 
out a dagger, to dispatch, by a summary justice, those who had 
escaped the laws. ' After meeting with well-merited contempt, 
and living for some time in the greatest obscurity, by a hand- 
some present to Madame Buonajiarte, in 1799, he obtained the 
favour of Napoleone, who dragged him forward to be placed 
among other ornaments of his senate. Sers has just cunning 
enough to be taken for a man of sense, when with fools; when 
with men of sense, he re-assumes the place allotted him by na- 
ture. Without education, as well as without parts, he for a 
long time confounded brutal scurrility Avith oratory, and thought 
himself eloquent, when he was only insolent or impertinent. 
His ideas of liberty are such, that, when a municipal officer, he 
signed a mandate of arrest against sixty-four individuals of both 
sexes, wlio were at a ball, because they had refused to invite to 
it one of his nieces. 



160 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Abrial, Emmery, Vernier, and Lemercier, are the other 
four members of that commission ; of these, two are old in- 
triguers, two are nullities, and all four are slaves. 

Of the seven members of the senatorial commission, for 
preserving the Hberty of the press, Garat and Roederer are the 
principal. The former is a pedant, while pretending to be a 
philosopher; and he signed the sentence of his good king's 
death, while declaring himself a royalist. A mere valet to Ro- 
bespierre, his fawning procured him opportunities to enrich 
himself with the spoil of those whom his calumnies and plots 
caused to be massacred or guillotined. When, as a minister of 
justice, he informed Louis XVI of his condemnation, he did it 
with such an affected and atrocious indifference, that he even 
shocked his accomplices, whose nature had not much of tendei'- 
ness. — As a member of the first assembly, as a minister under 
the convention, and as a deputy of the council of Five Hundred, 
he always opposed the liberty of the press. " The laws, you say, 
(exclaimed he in the council) punish libellers; so they do 
thieves and house-breakers ; but would you, therefore, leave 
your doors unbolted ? Is not the character, the honour, and the 
tranquillity of a citizen, preferable to his treasures ? and, by the 
liberty of the press, you leave them at the mercy of every scrib- 
bler who can write or think. The wound inflicted may heal, but 
the scar will always remain. Were you, therefore, determined 
to decree the motion for this dangerous and impolitic liberty, I 
make this amendment, that conviction of having written a libel 
carries ivith it capital punishment^ and that a label be fastened on 
the breast of the libeller, when carried to execution, with this 
inscription, a social murderer, or a murderer of characters!" 

Rcederer has belonged to all religious or anti-religious sects, 
aiid to all political or anti-social factions, these last twenty years ; 
but after approving, applauding and serving them,he has deserted 
them, sold them, or betrayed them. Before the revolution, a coun- 
sellor of parliament at Metz, he was a spy of the court on his 
colleagues; and since the revolution he served the jacobins as 
a spy on the court. Immoral, and unprincipled to the highest 
degree, his profligacy and duplicity are only equalled by his 
perversity and cruelty. It was he who, on the 10th of August, 
1792, betrayed the king and the royal family into the hands of 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 161 

their assassins, and who himself made a merit of this infamous 
act. After being i-epulsed by all, even by the most sanguinary 
of our parties and partisans, by a Brissot, a Marat, a Robes- 
pierre, a Tallien, and a Burras, Buonapai^te adopted him first 
as a counsellor of state, and afterwards as a senator. His own 
and only daughter died in a miscarriage, the consequence of 
an incestuous commerce with her unnatural parent; and his 
only son is disinherited by him for resenting his father's base- 
ness, in debauching a young girl whom the son had engaged to 
marry. 

With the usual consistency of my revolutionary countrymen, 
he has, at one period, asserted that the liberty of the press was 
necessary for the preservation both of men and things, for the 
protection of governors, as well as of the governed, and that it 
was the best support of a constitutional government. — At another 
time he wrote, that, as it was impossible to fix the limits be- 
tween the liberty and the licentiousness of the press, the latter 
destroyed the benefits of the former; that the liberty of the 
press was only useful against a government which one wished 
to overturn, but dangerous to a government which one wished 
to preserve. To shew his indiiTerence about his own character, 
as well as about the opinion of the public, these opposite decla- 
rations were inserted in one of our daily papers, and both were 
signed " Rcederer." 

In 1789. he was indebted above one million two hundred 
thousand livres (50,0901.), and he now possesses national pro- 
perty, purchased for seven millions of livres (292,0001.), 
and he avows himself to be worth three millions more in mo- 
ney, placed in our public funds. He often says, laughingly, 
that he is under great obligations to Robespierre, whose guillo- 
tine acquitted in one day all his debts. AU his creditors, after 
being denounced for their aristocracy, were all murdered en 
masse by this instrument of death. 

Of all the old beaux and superannuated libertines, whose 
company I have had the misfortune of not being able to avoid) 
Roederer is the most affected, silly, and disgusting. His wrin- 
kled face, and effeminate and childish air ; his assiduities about 
every woman of beauty or fashion ; his confidence in his own 
merit, and his presumption in his own power, wear such a curi- 

y 



162 / SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

ous contrast with his trembling hands* running eyes, and ener- 
vated person, that I have frequently been ready to laugh at 
him in his face, had not indignation silenced all other feeling. 
A light-coloured wig covers a bald head; his cheeks and eye- 
lids are painted, and his teeth false ; and I have seen a woman 
faint away from the effect of his breath ; notwithstanding that 
he infects with his musk and perfumes a whole house-only with 
his presence. — When in the ground floor, you may smell him 
in the attic story. 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

Paris, Sefitember 1805. 



My lord, 



THE reciprocal jealousy and even interest of Austria, 
France and Russia, have hitherto prevented the tottering Turk- 
ish empire from being partitioned like Poland, or seized like 
Italy ; to serve as indemnities, like the German empire, or to 
be shared, as reward to allies, like the empire of Mysore. 

When we consider the anarchy that prevails, both in the go- 
vernment and among the subjects, as well in the capital as in 
the provinces of the Ottoman Porte ; when we reflect on the 
mutiny and cowardice of its armies and navy, the ignorance 
and incapacity of its officers and military and naval command- 
ers, it is surprising indeed, as I have heard Talleyrand often 
declare, that more foreign political intrigues should be carried 
on at Constantinople alone, than in all other capitals of Europe, 
taken together. These intrigues, however, instead of doing 
honour to the sagacity and patriotism of the members of the 
Divan, expose only their corruption and imbecility ; and instead 
of indicating a dread of the strength of the sublime Sultan, 
shows a knowledge of his weakness, of which the gold of the 
most wealthy, and the craft of the most subtle, by turns are 
striving to profit. 

Beyond a doubt, the enmity of the Ottoman Porte can do 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 163 

more mischief than its friendship can do service. Its neutrality 
is always useful ; while its alliance becomes frequently a bur- 
then, and its support of no advantage. It is therefore more 
fr(^m a view of preventing evils, than from expectation of profit, 
that all other powers plot, cabal and bribe. The map of the 
Turkish empire, explains what may be thought absurd or nu- 
gatory in this assertion. 

As soon as a war with Austria was resolved on by the Bris- 
sot faction, in 1792, emissaries were dispatched to Constantino- 
ple, to engage the Divan to invade the provinces of Austria and 
Russia; thereby to create a diversion in favour of this country. 
Our ambassador in Turkey at that time, Count de Choiseuil 
Gouffier, though an admirer of the revolution, was not a repub- 
lican, and therefore secretly counteracted what he officially 
seemed to wish to effect. The Imperial court succeeded there- 
fore in establishing the neutrality of the Ottoman Porte, but 
Count de Choiseuil was proscribed by the Convention. As aca- 
demician^ he was, however, at St. Petersburg, liberally recom- 
pensed by Catharine II, for the services the ambassador had 
performed at Constantinople. 

In May 1793 the Con^mittee of Public Safety determined 
to expedite another embassy to the Grand Signior, at the head 
of which was the famous intriguer De Semonville; whose re- 
volutionary diplomacy had, within three years, alarmed the 
courts of Madrid, Naples, and Turin, as well as the republican 
government of Genoa. His career towards Turkey was stop- 
ped in the Grison republic, on the 25th of July following, where 
he, with sixteen other persons of his suite, was arrested, and 
sent a prisoner, first to Milan, and afterwards to Mantua. He 
carried with him presents of immense value, which were all 
seized by the Austrians. Among them were four superb 
coaches, highly finished, varnished and gilt; what in common 
carriages is iron or brass, was here gold or silver gilt. Two 
large chests were filled with stuff of gold brocade, India gold 
muslins and shawls, and laces of very great value. Eighty thou- 
sand louis-d'ors (80,0001.) in ready money; a service of gold 
jilate of twenty covers, which formerly belonged to the kings 
of France ; two small boxes full of diamonds and brilliants, the 
intrinsic worth of which was estimated at forty-eight millions 



164 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

of livres (2,000,0001.), and a great number of jewels, among 
others the crown diamond, called here the Regent's, and in your 
country the Pitt Diamond fell, with other riches, into the hands 
of the captors. Notwithstanding this loss and this disappoint-* 
ment, we contrived in vain to purchase the hostility of the 1 urks 
against our enemies, though with the sacrifice of no less a sum 
(according to the report of St. Jufet, in June 1794) than seventy 
miUions of livres, (3,000,0001.) These official statements prove 
the means which our so-often-extolled economical and moral re- 
publican governments have employed in their negotiations. 

After the invasion of Egypt, in time of peace, by Buona- 
parte, the Sultan became at last convinced of the siiictriiy of 
our professions of friendship, which he returned with a de- 
claration of war. The preliminaries of peace with your coun- 
try, in October, 1801, were, however, soon followed with a 
renewal of our former friendly intercourse with the Ottoman 
Porte. The voyage of Sebastiani into Egypt and Syria, in the 
autumn of 1802, shewed that our tenderness for the inhabitants 
of these countries had not diminished ; and that we soon intend- 
ed to confer on them new hugs of fraternity. Your pretensions 
to Malta impeded our prospects in the East, and your obstinacy 
obliged us to postpone our so-well-planned schemes of encroach- 
ment. It was then first that Buonaparte selected for his repre- 
sentative to the Grand Signior, General Brune, commonly called, 
by Moreau, Macdonald, and other competent judges of military 
merit, an intriguer at the head of armies, and a warrior in time of 
peace, luhen seated in the council-chamber . 

This Brune was, before the revolution, a journeyman prin- 
ter, and married to a washer-woman, whose industry and labour 
alone prevented him from starving, for he was as vicious as 
idle. The money he gained when he chose to work was gene- 
rally squandered away in brothels, among prostitutes. To sup- 
ply his excesses he had even recourse to dishonest means, and 
was shut up in the prison of Bicetre, for robbing his master of 
types and of paper. 

In the beginning of the revolution, his very crimes made 
him an acceptable associate of Marat, who, Avith the money ad- 
advanced by the Orleans faction, bought him a printing-office, 
and he printed the so dreadfully well-known Journal, called 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 165 

VAmie du Peufile. From the principles of this atrocious paper, 
and from those of his sanguinary patron, he formed his own 
political creed. He distinguished himself frequeatly at the 
clubs of the Cordeliers, and of the Jacobins, by his extravagant 
motions, and by provoking law^s of proscription against a wealth 
he did not possess, and against a rank he would have disho- 
noured, but did not see without envy. On the 30th of June, 
1791, he said, in the fortner of these clubs, " We hear every 
where complaints of poverty: were not our eyes so often dis- 
gusted with the sight of unnatural riches, our hearts would not 
so often be 'shocked at the unnatural sufferings of humanity. — 
The blessings of our revolution will never be felt by the world, 
until we are in France on a level, with regard to rank as well 
as to fortune. I, for my part, know too well the dignity of hu- 
man nature, ever to bow to a superior ; but, brothers and friends, 
it is not enough that we are all politically equal, we must also 
be all equally rich, or equally poor — we must either all strive 
to become men of property, or reduce men of property to be- 
come Sans Culottes. Believe me, the aristocracy of property 
is more dangerous than the aristocracy of prerogative or fa- 
naticism, because it is more common. Here is a list sent to 
UAmie du Peufile^ but of which prudence yet prohibits the 
publication. It contains the names of all the men of property 
of Paris, and of the department of the Seine, the amount of 
their fortunes, and a proposal how to reduce and divide it 
among our patriots. Of its great utility in the moment when 
we have been striking our grand blows, nobody dares doubt; I 
therefore move, that a brotherly letter be sent to every society 
of our brothers and friends, in the provinces, inviting each of 
them to compose one of similar contents and of similar tenden- 
cy in their own districts, with what remarks they think proper 
to affix, and to Ibrwai'd them to us, to be deposited in the mo- 
ther club, after taking copies of them for the archives of their 
own society." His motion was decreed. 

Two days afterwards he again ascended the tribune. "You 
approved," said he, " of Avhat measures I lately proposed against 
the aristocracy of property ; I will now tell you of another aris- 
tocracy which we must also crush — I mean that of religion, 
and of the clergy. Their supports are folly, cowardice, and ig- 



166 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

noratice. All priests are to be proscribed, and punished as 
criminals, and despised as impostors or idiots ; and all altars 
must be reduced to dust, as unnecessary. To prepare the pub- 
lic mind for such events, we must enlighten it; which can only- 
he done by disseminating extracts from UAmie du Feuple^ 
and othav /ifiilosofihical publications. I have here some ballads 
of my own composition, which have been sung in my quarter ; 
where all superstitious persons have already trembled, and all 
fanatics are leaving. If you think proper, I will, for a mere trifle, 
print twenty -thousand copies of them, to be distributed and dis- 
seminated gratis all over France." After some discussion, the 
treasurer of the club was ordered to advance citizen Brune the 
sum I'equired, and the secretary to transmit the ballads to the 
fraternal societies in the provinces. 

Brune put on his first regimentals as an aide-du-camp to Ge- 
neral Santerre, in December 1792, after having given proofs 
of his military prowess, the preceding September, in the massa- 
cre of the prisoners in the Abbey. In 1793 he was appointed 
a colonel in the revolutionary army, which, during the reign of 
terror, laid waste the departments of the Gironde; where he 
was often seen commanding his corps, with a human head fixed 
on his sword. On the day when he entered Bourdeaux with 
his troops, a new-born child occupied the same place, to the 
great horror of the inhabitants. During tiiis brilliant expedi- 
tion he laid the first foundation of his present fortune, having 
pillaged them in a most merciful manner, and arrested or shot 
every suspected person, who could not, or would not exchange 
property for life. On his return to Paris his palriodsm was re- 
compensed with a commission of a General of Brigade. On 
the death of Robespierre he was arrested as a terrorist, but after 
some tnonths imprisonment again released. 

In October 1795 he assisted Napoleone Buonaparte, in the 
massacre of the Parisians, and obtained for it, from the director 
Barras, the rank of a general of division. Though occupying 
in time of war such a high military rank, he had hitherto never 
seen an enemy, or witnessed an engagement. 

After Buonaparte had plaimed the invasion and pillage of 
Switzerland, Brune was charged to execute tliis unjust outrage 
against the law of nations. His capacity to intrigue procured 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 167 

him this distinction, and he did honour to the choice of his em- 
ployers. You have no doubt read that, after lulling the govern- 
ment of Berne into security by repeated proposals of accom- 
modation, he attacked the Swiss and Bernese troops during a 
truce, and obtained by treachery successes which his valour did 
not promise him. The pillage, robberies, and devastations in 
Helvetia added several more millions to his previously great 
riches. 

It was after his campaign in Holland, during the autumn of 
1799, that he first began to claim some military glory. He 
owed, however, his successes to the superior number of his 
troops, and to the talents of the generals and officers serving 
under him. Being made a counsellor of state by Buonaparte, 
he was intrusted with the command of the army against the 
Chouans. Here again he seduced by his promises, and duped 
by his intrigues; acted infamously, but was successful. 



LETTER XXXIX. 

Paris, September 1805. 



My lord, 



THREE months before Brune set out on his embassy to 
Constantinople, Talleyrand and Fouche were collecting toge- 
ther all the desperadoes of ovir revolution, and all the Italian, 
Corsican, Greek and Arabian renegadoes and vagabonds in our 
country, to form him a set of attendants, agreeable to the real 
object of his mission. 

You know too much of our national chai'acter, and of my 
own veracity, to think it improbable, when I assure you that 
most of our great men in place are as vain as presumptuous, 
and that sometimes vanity and presumption get the better of 
their discretion and prudence. What I am going to tell you, 
I did not hear myself, but it was reported to me by a female 
friend as estimable for her virtues as admired for her accom- 
plishments. She is often honoured with invitations to Talley- 



X^S SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

rand's familiar parties, composed chiefly of persona, whose for- 
tunes are independent as their principles ; who though not ap- 
proving the revolution, neither joined its opposers, nor opposed 
its adherents, preferring tranquillity and obscurity to agitation 
^nd celebrity. Their nunaber is not much above half a dozien, 
and the minister calls them the only honest people in France, 
■\yith whom he thinks himself safe. 

When it was reported here that two hundred persons of 
Brune's suite had embarked at Marseilles, and eighty-four at 
Genoa, and when it was besides known that near fifty indivi- 
duals accompanied him in his outset, this unusual occurrence 
caused much conversation and many speculations in all our co- 
teries and fashionable circles. About that time my friend dined 
with Talleyrand, and by chance also mentioned this grand em- 
bassy, observing, at the same time, that it was too much honour 
done the Ottoman Porte, and too much money thrown away 
upon splendor, to honour such an imbecile and tottering go- 
vernment. " How people talk" interrupted Talleyrand " about 
what they do not comprehend. Generous as Buonaparte is, 
he does not throw away his expenses; perhaps within twelve 
months all these renegadoes, or adventurers, whom you all con- 
sider as valets of Brune, will be three-tailed Pachas or Beys, 
leading friends of liberty, who shall have gloriously broken 
their fetters as slaves of a Selim, to become the subjects of a 
Napoleone. The Eastern empire has indeed long expired, but 
it may suddenly be revived."-^" Austria and Russia," replied 
my friend, " would never suffer it, and England would sooner 
ruin her navy and exhaust her treasures than permit such a re- 
volution."—" So they have tried to do," retorted Talleyrand 
" to bring about a counter-revolution in France. Biit though 
only a moment is requisite to erect the standai'd of revolt, ages 
often are necessary to conquer and seize it. Turkey has long 
been ripe for a revolution. It wanted only chiefs and directors. 
In time of war, ten thousand Frenchmen, landed in the Darda- 
nelles, would be masters of Constantinople, and perhaps of the 
empire. In time of peace, four hundred bold and well-inform- 
ed men, may produce the same effect. — Besides, with some 
temporary cession of a couple of provinces to each of the Im- 
perial courts, and witli the temporary pi*esent of an island to 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 16p 

Great Britain, every thing may be settled pro temfiore^ and q 
Jose/ih Buonaparte be fiernutted to reign at Constantinofile, as a 
Napoleone does at Paris ;" That the minister made use of this 
language, I can take upon me to affirm; but whether purposely 
or unintentionally, whether to give an high opinion of his 
plans, or to impose upon his company, I will not and cannot 
assert. 

On the subject of this numerous suite of Brune, MarkofF is 
said to have obtained several conferences with Talleyrand, and 
several audiences of Buonaparte, in which representations, as 
just as energetic, were made; which, however did not alter the 
intent of our government, or increase the favour of the Rus- 
sian ambassador at the court of St. Cloud. But it proved that 
our schemes of subversion are suspected, and that our agents 
of overthrow would be watched and their manceuvres inspected. 

Count Italinski, the Russian ambassador to the Ottoman 
Porte, is one of those noblemen, Avho unite rank and informa- 
tion, talents and modesty, honour and patriotism, wealth and li- 
berality. His personal character and his individual virtues, made 
him therefore more esteemed and revered by tlie members of 
the Divan, than the high station he occupied, and the powerful 
prince he represented made him feared or respected. His warn- 
ings had created prejudices against Brune, which he found dif- 
ficult to remove. To revenge himself in his own way, our am- 
bassador inserted several paragraphs in the Moniteur, and in 
our other papers, in which count Italinski was libelled, and his 
transactions or views calumniated. 

After his first audience with the Grand Signior, Brune com- 
plained bitterly of not having learned the Turkish laiiguage, 
and of being under the necessity therefore of using interpret- 
ers, to whom he ascribed the renewed obstacles he encountered 
in every step he took, while his hotel was continually surrounded 
with spies, and the persons of his suite followed like criminals 
every where, when they went out. Even the valuable presents 
he carried with him, amounting in value to twenty-four millions 
of livres, (100,0001.) were but indifferently received, the accept- 
ors seeming to suspect the object and the honesty of the donor. 

In proportion as our politics became embroiled with those 
©f Russia, the post of Brune became of more importance ; but 

2 



17b SECI^ET HISTORY OF THE 

the obstacles thrown in his way augmented daily, and h6 was 
forced to avow that Russia and England had greater influence 
and more credit than the French Republic and its chief. When 
Buonaparte was proclaimed an Emperor of the French, Brune 
expected that his acknowledgment as such, at Constantinople, 
would be a mere matter of course, and announced officially on 
the day he presented a copy of his new credentials. Here again 
he was disappointed, and therefore demanded his I'ecal from a 
place, where there was no probability, under the present circum- 
stances, of either exciting the subjects to revolt, of deluding the 
prince into submission, or seducing ministers, who in pocketing 
his bribes forgot for what they were given. 

It was then that Buonaparte sent Joubert with a letter, in 
his own hand-writing, to be delivered into the hands of the Grand 
Siguier himself. This Joubert is a foundling, and was, from 
his youth destined, and educated to be one of the secret agents 
of our secret diplomacy. You may already perhaps have heard 
that our government selects yearly a number of young found- 
lings, or orphans, whom it causes to be brought up in foreign 
countries at its expense, so as to learn the language as natives 
of the nation, where, when grown up, they are chiefly to be 
employed. Joubert had been educated under the inspection of 
cur consuls at Smyrna, and when he assumes the dress of a 
Turk, from his accent and manners, even the mussulmen mis- 
take him for one of their creed, and of their country. He was 
introduced to Buonaparte in 1797, and accompanied him to 
Egypt, where his services were of the greatest utility to our 
army. He is now a kind of under-secretary in the office of our 
secret diplomacy, and a member of our Legion of Honour. — 
Should ever Joseph Buonaparte be an Emperor or Sultan of the 
East, Joubert will certainly be his Grand Vizier. There is 
another Joubert (with whom you must not confound him), who 
■was also a kind of Dragoman at Constantinople some years 
ago ; and who is still somewhere on a secret mission, in the 
East Indies. 

Joubert's arrival at Constantinople, excited both curiosity 
among the people, and suspicion among the ministry. There 
is no example in the Ottoman history, of a chief of a Christian 
nation having written to the Sultan by a private messenger, or 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 171 

of his highness having condescended to receive the letter from 
the bearer, and to converse with him. The Grand Vizier de- 
manded a copy of Buonaparte's letter, before an audience could 
be granted. This was refused by Joubert ; and as Brune threat- 
ened to quit the capital of Turkey, if any longer delay was ex- 
perienced, the letter was delivered in a garden near Constanti- 
nople, where the Sultan met Buonaparte's agent as if by chance, 
who it seems, lost all courage and presence of mind, and did 
not utter four words, to which no answer was given. 

This impertinent intrigue, and this novel diplomacy, there- 
fore, totally miscarried, to the great shame and greater disap- 
pointment of the schemers and contrivers. I must, however, 
do Talleyrand the justice to say, that he never approved of it, 
and even foretold the issue to his intimate friends. It was en- 
tirely the whim and invention of Buonaparte himself, upon a 
suggestion of Brune ; who was far from being so well acquaint- 
ed with the spirit and policy of the Divan, as he had been with 
the genius and plots of Jacobinism. Not rebuked, however, 
Joubert was ordered away a second time with a second letter, 
and after an absence of four months returned again as he went, 
jless satisfied with the second than with his first journey. 

In these trips to Turkey, he had always for travelling com- 
panions some of our emissaries to Austria, Hungaria, and in 
particular to Servia, where the insurgents were assisted by our 
councils, and even guided by some of our officers. The princi- 
pal aide-de-camp of Czerni George, the Servian chieftain, is one 
St. Martin, formerly a captain in our artillery, afterwards an 
officer of engineers in the Russian service, and finally a volun- 
teer in the army of Conde. He and three other officers of ar- 
tillery were, under fictitious names, sent by our government 
during the spring last year, to the camp of the insurgents.— 
They pretended to be of the Grecian religion, and fornverly 
Russian officers, and were immediately, employed. St. Martin 
has gained great influence over Czerni George, and directs hbth 
his political councils and military operations. Besides the indi- 
viduals left behind by Joubert, it is said that upwards of one 
hundred persons of Brune's suite have been ordered for the 
same destination. You see how great the activity of our go- 
vernment is, and that nothing is thought unworthy of its vigi- 



172 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

lance, or its machinations. In the staff of Paswan Oglou, six 
of my countrymen have been serving ever since 1796, always 
in the pay of our government. 

It was much both against the inclination and interest of our 
Emperor, that his ambassador at Constantinople should leave 
the field of battle there to the representatives of Russia, Aus- 
tria, and England. But his dignity was at a stake. After many 
threats to deprive the Sultan of the honour of his presence, and 
even after setting out once for some leagues on his return, 
Brune observing that these marches and counter-marches ex- 
cited more mirth than teri'or, at last fixed a day, when finally 
either Buonaparte must be acknowledged by the Divan as an 
Emperor of the French, or his departure would take place. On 
that day he indeed began his retreat, but, under different pre- 
texts, he again stopped, sent couriers to his secretaries, waited 
for their return, and sent new couriers again — but all in vain, 
the Divan continued refractory. 

At his first audience, after his return, the reception Buona- 
parte gave him was not very cordial. He demanded active em- 
ployment, in case of a continental war either in Italy or in Ger- 
many ; but received neither. When our army of England was 
already on its march towards the Rhine, and Buonaparte re- 
turned here, Brune was ordered to take command on the coast, 
and to organise there an army of observation ; destined to suc- 
cour Holland in case of an invasion, or to invade England should 
a favourable occasion present itself. The fact is, he is charged 
to intrigue rather than to fight; and were Napoleone able to 
force upon Austria another peace of Luneville, Brune will pro- 
bably be the plenipotentiary that would ask your acceptance of 
another peace of Amiens. It is here a general belief that his 
present command signifies another pacific overture from Buona- 
parte before your parliament meet, or at least before the new 
year. Remember that our hero is more to be dreaded as a 
Philip than as an Alexander. 

General Brune has bought landed property for nine millions 
of livres (375,0001.), and has, in different funds, placed ready- 
money to the same amount. His own and his wife's diamonds 
are valued by him at three millions ; and when he has any par- 
ties to dinner, he exhibits them with great complaisance as pre- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 173 

sents forced upon him during his campaign in Smtzerland and 
Holland, for the firotection he gave the inhabitants. He is now 
so vain of his wealth and proud of his rank, that he not only dis- 
regards all former acquaintances, but denies his own brothers 
and sisters ; telling them frankly that the Field Marshal Brune 
can have no shoe-maker for a brother, nor a sister married to 
a chandler ; that he knows of no parents, and of no relatives, 
being the ipaker of his own fortune and of what he is ; that his 
children will look no farther back for ancestry than their father. 
One of his first cousins, a postilion, who insisted rather obsti- 
nately on his family alliance, was recommended by Brune to 
his friend Fouche, who sent him on a voyage of discovery to 
Cayenne, from which he probably will not return very soon. 



LETTER XL. 

Paris^ Sefitember 1805. 



My lord, 



MADAME de C— — n is now one of our most fashionable 
ladies. Once in the week she has a grand tea party; once in 
a fortnight a grand dinner; and once in the month a grand ball. 
Foreign gentlemen are particularly well received at her house, 
which of course is much frequented by them. As you intend 
to visit this country after a peace, it may be of some service to 
you not to be unacquainted with the portrait of a lady, whose in- 
vitation, to see the original, you may depend upon the day. after 
your arrival. 

Madame de C n is the widow of the great and useless 

traveller. Count de C n, to whom, his relatives pretend that 

she was never married. Upon his death-bed he acknowledged 
her, however, for his wife, and left her mistress of a fortune of 
three hundred thousand livres a-year, (12,0001.) The first four 
years of her widowhood she passed in law-suits before the tri- 
bunals, where the plaintiffs could not prove that she was un- 
married, nor she herself that she was married. But Madame 



174 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Napoleone Buonaparte, for a smo//- douceur, speaking in her fa- 
vour, the consciences of the juries and the understanding of 
the judges were all convinced at once, that she had been the 

lawful wife, and was the lawful heiress, of Count de C n, 

who had no children, or nearer relatives than third cousins. 

Count de C n was travelling in the East Indies, when 

the Revolution broke out. His occupation there was a very in- 
nocent one ; he drew countenances, being one of the most en- 
thusiastic sectaries of Lavater, and modestly called himself the 
first physiognomist in the world. Indeed he had been at least 
the most laborious one ; for he left behind him a collection of 
six thousand two hundred portraits drawn by himself in the 
four quarters of the world, during a period of thirty years. 

He never engaged a servant, nor dealt with a tradesman, 
whose physiognomy had not been examined by him. In his 
travels, he preferred the worst accommodations in a house, 
where he approved of the countenance of the host, to the best 
where the traits or lines of the landlord's fuce were irregular 
or did not coincide with his ideas of physiognomical propriety. 
The cut of a face, its expression, the length of the nose, the 
width or smallness of the mouth, the form of the eye-lids or of 
the ears, the colour or thickness of the hair, with the shape and 
tout ensemble of the head, were always minutely considered and 
discussed, before he entered into any agreement on any subject 
with any individual whatever. Whatever recommendations, or 
whatever attestations were produced, if they did not corres- 
pond with his own physiognomical remarks and calculations, 
they were disregarded; while a person, whose physiognomy 
pleased him, required no other introduction to obtain his confi- 
dence. Whether he thought himself wiser than his forefathers, 
he certainly did not grow richer than they were. Charlatarut 
who imposed upon his credulity, and impostors who flattered 
his mania; servants who robbed him, and mistresses who de- 
ceived him, proved, that if his knowledge of physiognomy was 
great, it was by no means infallible. At his death, of the for- 
tune left him by his parents, only the half remained. 

His friends often amused themselves at the expense of his 
foibles. When he prepared for a journey to the East, one of 
them recommended him a servant, upon whose fidelity he could 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 175 

depend. After examining with minute scrupulosity the head 
of the person, he wrote, " My friend, I accept your valuable 
present. From calculations, which never deceive me, Mauville 
(the servant's name) possesses, with the fidelity of a dog, the 
intrepidity of the lion. Chastity itself is painted on his front, 
modesty in his looks, temperance on his cheek, and his mouth 
and nose bespeak honesty itself." Shortly after the Count had 
landed at Pondicherry, Mauville, who was a girl, died in a con- 
dition which shewed that chastity had not been the divinity to 
whom she had chiefly sacrificed. In her trunk were found se- 
veral trinkets belonging to her master, which she honestly had 
appropriated to herself. His miscalculation on this subject the 
Count could not but avow; he added, however, that it was the 
entire fault of his friend, who had duped him with regard to the 
sex. 

Madame de C n was, on account of her physiognomy, 

purchased by her late husband, then travelling in Turkey, from 
a merchant of Circassian slaves, when she was under seven 
years of age ; and sent her for education to a relation of the 
Count, an Abbess of a convent in Languedoc. On his return 
from Turkey some years afterwards, he took her under his own 
care ; and she accompanied him over all Asia, and returned 
first to France in 1796, where her husband's name was upon 
the list of emigrants, though he had not been in Europe for ten 
years before the Revolution. However, by some pecuniary ar- 
rangements with Barras, hp recovered his property, which he 
did not long enjoy, for he died in 1798. Mistress of a large 
fortune, with some remnants of beauty and elegance of man- 
ners, the suitors of Madame de C n have been numerous, 

and among them several senators and generals, and even the 
minister Chaptal. But she lias politely declined all their offers, 
preferring her liberty and the undisturbed right of following 
her own inclination^ to the inconvenient ties of Hymen. A gen- 
tleman, whom she calls^ and who passes for, her brother. Cheva- 
lier de M — de T , a Knight of Malta, assists her in doing 

the honours of her house, and is considered as her favourite 
lover ; though report and the scandalous chronicle say, that she 
bestows her favours on every person who wishes to bestow on 
her his name, and that therefore her gallants are at least as nu' 
merous as her suitors. 



176 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Such is the true statement of the past as well as the present 

with regard to Madame de C n. She relates, however, a 

different story. She says that she is a daughter of the Marquis 

de M de T , of a Languedoc family ; that she sailed 

when a child, with her mother in a felucca from Nice to Malta, 
there to visit her brother ; was captured by an Algerine pirate, 
separated from her mother and carried to Constantinople by a 
merchant of slaves; there she was purchased by Count de 

C n, who restored her to her family, and whom therefore, 

notwithstanding the difference of their ages, she married from 
gratitude. This pretty romantic story is ordered in our court 
circles to be officially believed ; and of course is believed by no- 
body, not even by the Emperor and Empress themselves, who 
would not give her the place of a lady in waiting, though her 
request was accompanied with a valuable diamond to the latter. 
The present was kept, but the offer declined. 

All the members of the Buonaparte family, females as well 
as males, honour her house with their visits, and with the ac- 
ceptance of her invitations ; and it is, therefore, among our fa- 
shionables, the haut ton to be of the society and circle of Ma- 
dame de C— — n. 

Last February, Madame de P 1 (the wife of Count de 

P 1, a relation by her husband's side, who by the Revolu- 
tion have lost all their property, and live with her as compa- 
nions), was brought to bed of a son ; the child was baptized by 
the Cardinal de Belloy, and Madame Joseph, and Prince Louis 
Buonaparte stood sponsors. This occurrence was celebrated 
with great pomp, and a fete was given to near one hundred and 
fifty persons of both sexes ; as usual a mixture of ci-devant no- 
bles and oi ci-devant Sans Culottes; of rank and meanness; of 
upstart wealth and beggared dignity. 

What that day struck me most was the audacity of the se- 
nator Villetard, in teasing and insulting the old Cardinal de Bel- 
loy with his impertinent conversation and affected piety. This 
Villetard was, before the Revolution, a journeyman barber, and 
was released in 1789 by the mob from the prison of the Chate- 
let, whei'e he was confined for theft. In 179 1 his fiatriotism was 
so well known in the department of Yonne, that he was deput- 
ed by the Jacobins there, to the Jacobins of the capital, with an 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 177 

address, encouraging and advising the deposition of Louis XVI j 
and in 1792 he was chosen a member of the National Conven- 
tion, w^here the most sanguinary and most violent of the fac- 
tious were always certain to reckon him in the number of their 
adherents. 

In December 1797, when an insurrection, prepared by Jo- 
seph Buonaparte at Rome, deprived the late revered Pontiff 
both of his sovereignty and liberty, Villetard was sent by the 
Jacobin and atheistical party of the Directory to Loretto, to 
sieze and carry off .the celebrated Madonna. In the execution 
of this commission, he displayed a conduct worthy the little- 
ness of his genius and the criminality of his mind. The wooden 
image of the holy virgin, a black gown said to have appertained 
to her, together with three broken china plates, which the Ro- 
man Catholic faithful have for ages believed to have been used 
by her, were presented by him to the Directory with a cruelly 
scandalous show, accompanied by a horribly blasphemous let- 
ter. He passed the next night, after he had perpetrated this 
sacrilege, with two prostitutes, in the chapel of the holy virgin; 
and on the next morning placed one of them naked on the pe- 
destal where the statue of the virgin had formerly stood; and 
ordered all the devotees at Loi'etto, and two leagues I'ound, to 
prostrate themselves before her. This shocking command, oc- 
casioned the premature death of fifteen ladies; two of whom, 
who were nuns, died on the spot, on beholding the horrid out- 
rage ; and many more were deprived of their reason. How bar- 
barously unfeeling must that wretch be, who in bereaving the 
religious, the pious, and the conscientious of their consolation 
and hope, adds the tormenting reproach of apostacy, by forcing 
virtue upon its knees to bow before what it knows to be guilt 
and infamy.!! ! 

A traitor, to his associates as to his God, it was he, who in 
November 1799, presented at St. Cloud the Decree, which ex- 
cluded all those who opposed Buonaparte's authority from the 
council of Five Hundred, and appointed the two committees, 
which made him a First Consul. In reward for this act of 
treachery, he was nominated to a place in the Conservative Se- 
nate. He has i:iow ranked himself among our modern saints, 
goes regularly to mass, and confesses; has made a brother of 

A a 



178 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

his, who was a drummer, an abbe; and his assiduity about the 
cardinal was probably with a view to obtain advancement for 
this edifying priest. 

, The Cardinal de Belloy is now ninety-six years of age, be- 
ing born in 1709, and has been a Bishop for fifty -three years, 
but during the revolution was proscribed with all other pi'e- 
lates. He remained, however, in France where his age saved 
him from the guillotine ; but not from being reduced to the 
greatest want. A descendant of a noble family, and possessing 
an unpolluted character, Buonaparte fixed upon him, as one of 
the pillars for the re-establishment of the catholic worship: 
wade him an archbishop of Paris, and procured him the rank 
of a cardinal from Rome- But he is now in his second child- 
hood, entirely directed by his grand vicaries Malaret, De Mons, 
and Legeas, who are in the pay of, and absolutely devoted to, 
Buonaparte. An innocent instrument in their hands, of those 
impious compliments, pronounced by him to the Emperor and 
the Empress, he did not perhaps even understand the meaning. 
From such a man the vile and artful Villetard might extort any 
promise. I observed, however, with pleasure, that he was 
watched by the grand vicar Malaret, who seldom loses sight of 
his eminence. 

These two so opposite characters, I mean de Belloy and 
Villetard, are already speaking evidences of the composition of 
the society, at Madame de C n's. But I will tell you some- 
thing still more striking. This lady is famous for her elegant 
services of plate, as much as for her delicate taste, in entertain- 
ing her parties. After the supper" on this night, eleven silver 
and four gold plates, besides numerous silver and gold spoons, 
forks, Sec. were missed; she informed Fouche of her loss, who 
had her house surrounded by spies, with orders not to let any 
servant pass, without undergoing a strict search. The first 
gentleman who called for his carriage, was his excellency, tljie 
counsellor of state and grand officer of the Legion of Honour, 
Treilhard. His servants were stopped and the cause explained. 
They willingly, and against the protest of their master, suffer- 
ed themselves to be searched. Nothing was found upon them; 
but the police agents observing the full-dressed hat of their 
master rather bulky under his arm, took the liberty to look into 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 179 

it, where they found one of Madame de C n's gold plates, 

and two of her spoons. His excellency immediately ordered his 
servants to be arrested, for having concealed their theft there. 
Fouche, however, when called out, advised his friend to forgive 
them for misplacing them, as the less said on the subject.^ the bet- 
ter. When Madame de C n heard of this discovery, she 

asked Fouche to recal his order, or to alter it; "a repetition of 
such misfilacings in the hats, or in the pockets of the masters," 
said she, " would injure the reputation of my house and com- 
pany." She never recovered the remainder of her loss, and 
that she might not be exposed in future to the same occurren- 
ces, she the following day bought two services of china, to be 
used when she had mixed society. 

Treilhard had, before the revolution, the reputation of be- 
ing an honest man, and an able advocate ; but has since joined 
the criminals of all factions, being an accomplice in their guilt 
and a sharer of their spoils. In the convention, he voted for 
the death of Louis XVI, and pursued without mercy the unfor- 
tunate Maria Antoinette to the scaffold. During his missions 
in the departments, wherever he went, the guillotine was erect- 
ed, and blood flowed in streams. He was nevertheless accused 
by Robespierre of moderatism. At Lille, in 1797, and at Ras- 
tadt, in 1798, he negotiated, as a plenipotentiary with the re- 
presentatives of princes, and in 1799 corresponded as a director 
with emperors and kings, to whom he wrote as his great and 
dear friends. He is now a counsellor of state, in the section of^ 
legislation, and enjoys a fortune of several millions of liyres, 
arising from estates in the country and from leases in the capi- 
tal. As this accident at Madame de C n's was soon public, 

his friends gave out that he has of late been exceedingly ab- 
sent, and from absence of mind, puts every thing, he can lay 
hold of into his pocket. He is not a favoui'ite with Madame Buo- 
naparte; and she asked her husband to dismiss and disgrace 
him for an act so disgraceful to a grand officer of the Legion of 
Honour, but was answered, " Were I to turn away all the 
thieves and rogues that encompass me I should soon cease to 
reign. I despise them, but I must employ them" 

It is wh spered that the police have discovered another of 
l^adame de C — -—n's lost gold plates, at a pawn-broker's, where 



180 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

it had been pledged by the wife of another counsellor of state, 
Frangais de Nantes. This I give you merely as a report! 
though the fact is that Madame Francais is very fond of gam- 
bling, but very unfortunate ; and she, with other of our fashion- 
able ladies, has more than once resorted to her charms, for the 
payment of her gambling debts. 



LETTER XLI. 

Paris, September 1805. 



My lord, 



SINCE my return here, I have never neglected to present 
myself before our sovereign, on his days of grand reviews, and 
grand diploinatic audiences. I never saw him more conde- 
scending, more agreeable, or, at least, less offensive, than on 
the day of his last levee, before he set out to be inaugurated a 
king of Italy ; nor worse tempered, petulant, agitated, abrupt, 
and rude, than at his first grand audience after his arrival from 
Milan, when this ceremony had been performed. I am not the 
only one who made this remark ; he did not disguise either his 
good or ill humour; and it was only requisite to have eyes and 
ears, to see and be disgusted at the difference of behaviour. 

I have heard a female friend of Madame Buonaparte ex- 
plain, in part, the cause of this alteration. Just before he set 
out for Italy, the agreeable news of the success of the first 
Rochefort squadron in the West Indies, and the escape of our 
Toulon fleet from the vigilance of Lord Nelson, highly elevated 
his spirits, as it was the first naval enterprise of any conse- 
quence since his reign. I am certain that one grand naval vic- 
tory would flatter his vanity and ambition more than all the glo- 
ry of one of his most brilliant continental campaigns. He had 
also, at that time, great expectations that another negotiation 
with Russia would keep the continent submissive under his dic- 
tature, until he should find an opportunity of crushing your 
power. You may be sure that he had no small hopes of strik- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 181 

ing a blow in your country, after the junction of our fleet with 
the Spanish ; not by any engagement between our Brest fleet 
and your Channel fleet, but under a supposition that you would 
detach squadrons to the East and West Indies, in search of the 
combined fleet, which, by an unexpected return, according to 
orders, would have then left us masters of the Channel, and, if 
joined with the Batavian fleet, perhaps even of the North Sea. 
By the incomprehensible activity of Lord Nelson, and by the 
defeat (or, as we call it here, the negative victory) of Villeneuvc 
and Gravina, all this first prospect had vanished. Our ven- 
geance against a nation of shopkeepers, we were not only un- 
der the necessity of postponing, but, from the unpolite threats 
anc} treaties of the cabinet of St. Petarsburgh, with those of Vi- 
enna and St. James's, we were on the eve of a continental war, 
and our gun-boats, instead of being useful in carrying an army 
to the destruction of the tyrants of the seas, were burthensome, 
as an army was necessary to guard them, and to prevent these 
tyrants from capturing or destroying thein. Such changes in 
so short a period of time as three months, might irritate a tem- 
per less patient than that of Napoleone the first. 

At his grand audience here, even after the army of Eng- 
land had moved towards Germany, when the die was cast, and 
his mind should, therefore, have been made up, he was almost 
insupportable. The low bows, and the still humbler expres- 
sions of the Prussian ambassador, the Marquis of Lucchesini, 
were hardly noticed; and the Saxon ambassador. Count de Bu- 
neau, was addressed in a language that no well-bred master 
^ever uses in speaking to a menial servant. He did not cast a 
look, or utter a word, that was not an insult to the audience, 
and a disgrace to his rank. I never before saw him vent his 
rage and disappointment so indiscriminately. We were, in- 
deed, (if I may use the term), humbled and trampled upon en 
masse. Some he put out of countenance, by staring angrily at 
them; others he shocked by his hoarse voice, and harsh words; 
and all — all of us were afraid, in our turn, of experiencing 
something worse than our neighbours. I observed more than 
one minister, and more than one general, change colour, and 
even perspire, at his Majesty's approach. 

I believe the members of the foreign diplomatic corps here 



182 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

will all agree with me, that, at a future congress, the restora- 
tion of the ancient and becoming etiquette of the kings of France 
would be as desirable a point to demand from the Emperor of 
the French, as the restoration of the balance of power. > 

Before his army of England quitted its old quarters on the 
coast, the officers and men often felt the effects of his ungovern- 
able temper. When several regiments of grenadiers, of the di- 
vision of Oudinot, were defiling before him, on the 25th of last 
month, he frequently, and severely, though without cause, re- 
probated their manner of marching; and once rode up to Cap- 
tain Fournois, pushed him forwards with the point of a small 
cane, calling out " Sacra Dieii ! advance, you walk like a tur- 
key." In the first moment of indignation, the captain, striking 
at the cane with his swoi'd, made a push, or a gesture, as if 
threatening the person of Buonaparte, who called out to his 
aide-de-camp, Savary, " Disarm the villain, and arrest him !" 
" It is unnecessary," the captain replied, " I have served a ty- 
rant, and merit my fate!" — so saying, he thrust his s\vord 
through his heart. His whole company stopped instantly, as 
at a word of command, and a general murmur was heard. 

" Lay down your arms, and march out of the file instantly," 
commanded Buonaparte, " or you shall be cut down for your 

mutiny by my guides." They hesitated for a moment, but 

the guides advancing to surround them, they obeyed, and were 
disarmed. On the following afternoon, by a special military 
commission, each tenth man was condemned to be shot; but 
Buonaparte pardoned them, upon condition of serving for life 
in the colonies; and the whole company was ordered to the 
colonial depots. The widow and five children of Captain Four- 
nois, the next morning, threw themselves at the Emperor's 
feet, presenting a petition, in which they stated that the pay of 
the captain had bt;en tlieir only support. — " Well," replied 
Buonaparte to the kneeling petitioners, " Fournois was both a 
fool and a traitor; but, nevertheless, 1 shall take care of you." 
Indeed, they have been so well taken care of, that nobody knows 
what has become of them. 

I am almost certain that I am not telling you what you did 
not know before-hand, in informing you, that the spirit of our 
troops is greatly different from that of the Germans, and even 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 183 

from that of your own country. Every one of our soldiers 
would prefer being shot to being beat or caned. — Flogging is 
with us out of the question. It may, perhaps, be national va- 
nity, but I am doubtful whether any other army upon the globe 
is, or can be, governed, with regard to discipline, in a less vio- 
lent and more delicate manner ; and nevertheless be kept in su- 
bordination, and perform the most brilliant exploits. Remem- 
ber, I speak of our spirit of subordination and discipline, and not 
of our character as citizens, as patriots, or as subjects. I have 
often hinted it, but, I believe, I have not explained myself so 
fully before ; but my firm opinion and persuasion is, that, with 
regard to our loyalty, our duty, and our moral and political 
principles, I do not think that another such an inconsistent and 
despicable people exist in the universe. 

The condition of the slave is certainly in itself that of vile- 
ness ; but is that slave a vile being, who for a blow pierces his 
bosom because he is unable to avenge it? And what epithet can 
be given him, who braves voluntarily a death seemingly cer- 
tain, not from the love of his country, but from a principle of 
honour, almost incompatible with the dishonour of bondage. 

During the siege of York Town, in America, we had, dur- 
ing one night, erected. a battery, with intent to blow up a place 
which, according to the report of our spies, was your magazine 
of ammunition, Sec. We had not time to finish it before day- 
light ; but one loaded twenty -four pounder was mounted ; and 
our cannoneer, the moment he was about to fire it, was killed. 
Six more of our men, in the same attempt, experienced the 
same fate. My regiment constituted the advanced guard near- 
est to the spot, and la Fayette brought me the order from the 
Commander in Chief, to engage some of my men upon that 
desperate undertaking. I spoke to them, and two advanced, 
but were both instantly shot by your sharp-shooters. 1 then 
looked at my grenadiers without uttering any thing, when, to 
my sorrow, one of my best and most orderly men advanced, 
saying: " My colonel, permit me to try my fortune!" Having 
assented, he went coldly amidst hundreds of bullets whistling 
around his ears, set fire to the cannon, which blew up a depot 
of powder as was expected, and in the confusion returned un- 
hurt. La Fayette then presented him with his purse. " No, 



184 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Sir," replied he, " money did not make me venture upon such 
a perilous undertaking." I understood my man, promoted him 
to a sergeant, and recommended him to Rocliambeau, who, in 
some months procured him the commission of a sub-lieutenant. 
He is now one of Buonaparte's field-marshals, and the only one 
of that rank who has no crimes to reproach himself with. — This 
man was the soldier of a despot, but was his action that of a man 
of honour, which a staunch republican of ancient Rome would 
have been proud of? Who can explain this contradiction? 

This anecdote about Fournois I heard General Savary relate 
at Madame Duchatel's, as a proof of Buonaparte's generosity 
and clemency, which he affirmed excited the admiration of the 
whole camp at Boulogne, I do not suppose this officer to be 
above thirty years of age, of which he has passed the first twen- 
ty-five in orphan-houses or in watch-houses: but no tyrant ever 
had a more cringing slave, or a more abject courtier. His af- 
fectation to extol every thing that Buonaparte does, right or 
wrong, is at last become so habitual, that it is naturalized, and 
you may mistake that for sincerity which is nothing but impos- 
ture or flattery. 

This son of a Swiss poi'ter is now one of Buonaparte's adju- 
tant-general's, a colonel of the Gens d' Armes d'Elite, a general 
of brigade in the army, and a commander of the Legion of Ho- 
nour — all these places he owes, not to valour or merit, but to 
abjectness, immorality and servility. When an aide-de-camp 
with Buonaparte in Egypt, he served him as a spy on his com- 
rades, and on officers of the staff; and was so much detested, 
that near Aboukir several shots were fired at him in his tent, 
by his own countrymen. He is supposed still to continue the 
same espionage; and as a colonel of the Gens d' Armes d'Elite, 
he is charged with the secret execution of all proscribed per* 
sons or state prisoners, Avho have been secretly condemned; a 
commission that a despot gives to a man he trusts, but dares 
not offer to a man he esteems. He is so well known, that, the 
instant he enters a society, silence immediately fblloAvs, and 
he has the whole conversation to himself. This he is stupid 
enough to take for a compliment, or for a mark of respect, or 
an acknowledgment of his superior parts and intelligence; 
when, in fact, it is a direct reproach with which prudence arms 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 185 

itself against suspected or known dishonesty. Besides his wife, 
b^has to support six other women whom he has seduced and 
ruined; and notwithstanding the numerous opportunities his 
master has procured him of pillaging and enriching himself, he 
is still much in debt; but wo to his creditors, where they indis- 
creet enough to ask for their payments! The Secret Tribunal 
would soon seize them, and transport them, or deliver them over 
to the hands of their debtor, to be shot as traitors or conspira- 
tors. 



LETTER LXII. 

Paris, Sefitember ' 1 805. 



My lord, 



I AM told that it was the want of pecuniary resources that 
made Buonaparte so ill-tempered on his last levee-day. - He 
would not have come here at all, but preceded his army to 
Strasburgh, ha<5 his minister of finances, Gaudin, and his minis- 
ter of the public treasury, Marbois, been able to procure forty- 
four millions of livres, (1,800,0001.) to pay a part of the arrears 
of the troops ; and for the speedy conveyance of ammunition 
and artillery towards the Rhine. 

Immediately after his arrival here, Buonaparte sent for the 
Directors of the bank of Fx'ance, informing them that within 
twenty-four hours they must advance him thirty-six millions of 
livres, (1,500,0001.) upon the revenue of the last quarter of 
1808. The president of the bank. Senator Garrat, demanded 
two hours to lay before the Emperor the situation of the bank, 
that his Majesty might judge what sum it was possible to spare, 
without ruining the credit of an establishment, hitherto so use- 
ful to the commerce of the empire. To this Buonaparte re- 
plied, that he was not ignorant of the resources, or of the cre- 
dit of the bank, no more than of its public utility; but that the 
affairs of state suffered from every hour's delay, and that there- 
fore he insisted upon having the sum demanded,, even within 

Bb 



1S6 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

two hours, partly in paper and partly in cash } and were they 
to shew any more opposition, he would order the bank and all 
its effects to be seized that moment. The Directors bowed, 
and returned to the bank ; whither they were followed by four 
waggons escorted by Hussars, and belonging to the financial de- 
partment of the Army of England. In these were placed eight 
millions of livres in cash ; and twenty -ei^ht millions in bank 
notes were delivered to M. Lefevre, the secretary -general of 
Marbois, who presented, in e:^i:change, Buonaparte's bond and 
security for the amount, bearing an interest of five per cent, 
yearly. 

When this money-transaction was known to the public, the 
alarm became general, and long before the hour the bank is 
usually open, the adjoining streets were crowded with persons, 
desiring to exchange their notes for cash. During the night, 
the Directors had taken care to pay themselves for the bank 
notes in their own possession with silver or gold ; and as they 
expected a run, they ordered all persons to be paid in copper 
coin, as long as any money of this metal remained. IfVequired 
a long time to count those half-pennys and centimes, (five of 
which make a sous or half-penny) but the people were not tired 
with waiting until towards three o'clock in the afternoon, when 
the bank is shut up. They then became so clamorous, that a 
company of Gens d'Armes was placed, for protection, at the 
entrance of the bank; but as the tumult increased, the street 
was surrounded by the police guards, and above six hundred 
individuals, many of them women, were carried, under an es- 
cort, to different police commissaries, and to the prefecture of 
the police; there most of them, after being examined, were 
reprimanded and released. The same night the police spies 
reported in the coffee-houses of the Palais Royal, and on the 
Boulevards, that this run on the bank was encouraged, and 
paid for by English emissaries, some of whom were already 
taken, and would be executed on the next day. On the morn- 
ing, however, the streets adjoining the bank were still more 
crowded, and the crowd still more tumultuous, because pay- 
ment was refused for all notes but those of five hundred livres 
(211.). The activity of the police agents, supported by the Gens 
d'Armes and police soldiers, again restored order, after several 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 187 

hundred persons had been again taken up for their mutinous 
conduct. Of these, many were, on the same evening, loaded 
with chains, and placed in carts, under military escort, paraded 
about near the bank and the Palais Royal ; the police having- as 
a measure of safety, under suspicion that they were influenced 
by British gold, condemned them to be transported to Cayenne ; 
and the carts set out on the same night for Rochefort, the place 
of their embarkation. 

On the following day, not an individual approached the bank, 
but all trade and all payments were at a stand; nobody would 
sell but for ready-money, and nobody, who had bank notes, would 
part with cash. Some Jews and money-brokers, in the Palais 
Royalj offered cash for these bills, at a discount of from ten to 
twenty per cent. But these usurers were, in their turn, taken 
up and transported, as agents of Pitt. An interview was then 
demanded by the directors and principal bankers, with the mi- 
nisters of finances and of the public treasury. In this confer- 
ence it was settled, that as soon as the two millions of dollars, 
on their way from Spain, had arrived at Paris, the bank should 
re-assume its payments. These dollars government would lend 
the bank for three months, and take in return its notes, but the 
bank was nevertheless to pay an interest of six per cent, during 
that period. All the bankers agreed not to press, unnecessarily, 
for any exchange of bills into cash; and to keep up the credit 
of the bank even by the individual credit of their own houses. 

You know, I suppose, that the bank of France has never 
issued but two sort of notes; those of one thousand livres (421.) 
and those of five hundred livres (2 11.), At the day of its stop- 
page, sixty millions of livres, (2,500,0001.) of the former, and 
fifteen millions of livres (625,0001.) of the latter, were in circu- 
lation ; and I have heard a banker assert, that the bank had not 
then six millions of livres (250,0001.) in money and bullion, to 
satisfy the 'claims of its creditors, or to honour its bills. 

The shock given to the credit of the bank by this last requi- 
sition of Buonaparte, will be felt for a long tirpe, and will with 
difficulty ever be repaired under his despotic government. Even 
now, when the bank pays in cash, our meixhants make a differ- 
ence from five to ten per cent, between purchasing for specie 
or. paying in bank notes ; and this mistrust will not be lessened 



186 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

hereafter. You may, perhaps, object, that as long as the bank 
pays, it is absurd for any one possessing its bills to pay dearer 
than with cash, which might so easily be obtained. This objec- 
tion would stand with regard to your, or any other free coun- 
try, but here where no payments are made in gold, but always 
in silver or copper, it requires a cart to carry away forty, thirty, 
or twenty thousand livres, in coin of these metals; and would 
immediately excite suspicion, that a bearer of these bills was 
an emissary of our enemies, or an enemy of our government. 
With us, unfortunately, suspicion is the same as conviction, 
and chastisement follows it as its shadow, 

A manufacturer of the name of Debrais established in the 
Rue St. Martin, where he had for years carried on business in 
the woollen line, went to the bank, two days after it had began 
to pay. He demanded, and obtained exchange, for twenty-four 
thousand livres, ( lOOOl.) in notes, necessary for him to pay what 
was due by him to his workmen. The same afternoon six of 
our custom-house officers, accompanied by police agents and 
Gens d'Armes, paid him a domiciliary visit, under pretence of 
searching for English goods. Several bales, as being of that 
description, were seized, and Debrais was carried a prisoner to 
La Force. On being examined by Fouch6, he offered to prove 
by the very men who had fabricated the suspected goods, that 
they were not English. The minister silenced him by saying, 
that government had not only evidence of the contrary, but was 
convinced that he was employed as an English agent to hurt 
the credit of the bank, and therefore if he did not give up his 
accomplices or employers, had condemned him to transporta- 
tion. In vain did his wife and daughters petition to Madame 
Buonaparte ; Debrais is now at Rochefort, if not already em- 
barked for our colonies. 

When he was ai'rested, a seal, as usual, was put on his 
house ; from which his wife and family were turned out, until 
the police should have time to take an inventory of his effects, 
and had decided on his fate. When JVIadame Debrais, after 
much trouble and many pecuniary sacrifices, at last obtained 
permission to have the seals removed, and re-enter her house, 
she found that all her plate, and more than half her goods and 
furniture, had been stolen and carried away. Upon her conrv- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 189 

plaint of this theft, she was thrown into prison for not being 
able to support her complaint with proofs, and for attempting 
to vilify the characters of the agents of our government. She 
is still in prison, but her daughters are by her orders disposing 
of the remainder of their parents' property, and intend to join 
their father, as soon as their mother has recovered her liberty. 

The same tyranny that supports the credit of our bank, also 
keeps up the ptice of our stocks. Any of our great stock-hold- 
ers, who sell out to any large amount, if they are unable to ac- 
count for, or unwilling to declare the manner in which they in- 
ten,d to employ their money, are immediately arrested; some- 
times transported to the colonies; but more frequently exiled 
into the country, to remain under the inspection of some police 
agent ; and are not allowed to return here without the previous 
permission of our government. Those of them who are up- 
starts, and have made their fortunes since the revolution by 
plunder, or as contractors, are still more severely treated ; and 
are often obliged to renounce part of their ill-gotten wealth to 
save the remainder; or to preserve their liberty or lives. A 
revisal of their former accounts, or an inspection of their past 
transactions, are certain and efficacious threats to keep them in 
silent submission, as they all well understand the meaning of 
them. 

Even foreigners, whom our numerous national bankruptcies 
have not yet disheartened, are subject to these measures of ri- 
gour or vigour requisite to preserve our public credit. In the 
autumn last year a Dutchman of the name of Vander Winkel, 
sold out by his agent for three millions of livres (125,0001.) in 
our stock, on one day, for which he bought up bills upon Ham- 
burgh and London. He lodged in the hotel des quatre nations. 
Rue Crenelle, where the landlord, who is 2i patriot^ introduced 
some police agents into his apai-tments during his absence. 
These broke open all his trunks, drawers and even his writing 
desk, and, when he entered, seized his person, and carried him 
to the Temple. By his correspondence it was discovered that 
all this money was to be brought over to England; a reason 
more than sufficient to incur the suspicion of our government. 
Vander Winkel spoke very little French, and he continued 
therefore in confinement three Aveeks before he was examined, 



190 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

as our secret police had not at Paris, any of its agents, who 
spoke Dutch. Carried before Fouch^., he avowed that the mo- 
ney was destined for England, there to pay for some planta- 
tions which he desired to purchase in Surinam and Barbice. 
His interpreter advised him by the orders of Fouche, to alter 
his mind ; and as he was fond of colonial property, lay out his 
money in plantations at Cayenne, which was in the vicinity of 
Surinam, and where government would recommend him advan- 
tageous purchases. It was hinted to him, also, that this was a 
particular favour, and a proof of the generosity of our govern- 
ment; as his papers contained many matters, that easily might 
be construed to be of a treasonable nature. After consulting 
with Schimmelpenninck, the ambassador of his country, he 
wrote for his wife and children, and was seen safe with them to 
Bourdeaux by our police agents, who had hired an American 
vessel to carry them all to Cayenne. This certainly is a new 
method to populate our colonies with capitalists. 



LETTER XLIII. 

Paris, September 1805. 

My lord, 

HANOVER has been a mine of gold to our government, 
to its generals, to its commissaries, and to its favourites. Ac- 
cording to the boasts of Talleyrand, and the avowal of Berthier, 
we have drawn from it, within two years, more wealth than has 
been paid in contributions to the Electors of Hanover for this 
century past; and more than half a century of peace can re- 
store to that unfortunate country. It is reported here, that 
each person employed in a situation to make his fortune, in the 
continental states of the King of England (a name given here 
to Hanover in courtesy to Buonaparte) was laid under contri- 
bution, and expected to make certain douceurs to Madame Buo- 
naparte ; and it is said that she has received from Mortier, tiiree 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 191 

hundred thousand livres, and from Bernadotte two hundred and 
fifty thousand livres, besides other large sums from our mili- 
tary commissaries, treasurers, and other agents in the Electo- 
rate. 

General Mortier is one of the few favourite officers of Buo- 
naparte, who have distinguished themselves under his rivals 
Pichegru and Moreau, without ever serving under him. Ed- 
ward Adolph Casimer Mortier, is the son of a shopkeeper, and 
was born at Cambray in 1768. He was a shopman with his 
father until 1791, when he obtained a commission, first as lieu- 
tenant of Carabiniers, and afterwards as captain of the first bat- 
talion of volunteers of the department of the North. His first 
sight of an enemy was on the 30th of April 1792, near Quiev- 
rain, where he had a horse killed under him. He was present 
in the battles of Jamappes, of Nerwinde, and of Pellenberg. At 
the battle of Houdscoote he distinguished himself so much, as 
to be promoted to an adjutant-general. He was wounded at the 
battle of Fleures, and again at the passage of the Rhine in 1795 
under General Moreau. During 1796 and 1797, he continued 
to serve in Germany, but in 1798 and 1799, he headed a divi- 
sion in Switzerland ; from which Buonaparte recalled him in 
1800 to command the troops, in the capital and its environs. 
His address to Buonaparte, announcing the votes of the troops 
under him respecting the consulate for life, and the elevation 
to the Imperial throne, contain such mean and abject flattery, 
that, for a true soldier, it must have required more self-com- 
naand and more courage to pronounce them, than to brave the 
fire of a hundred cannons; but these very addresses, contemp- 
tible as their contents are, procured him the field-marshal's 
staff. Mortier well knew his man, and that his cringing in an- 
ti-chambers would be better rewarded than his services in the 
field. I was not pixsent Avhen Mortier spoke so shamefully ; 
but I have heard from persons who witnessed this farce, that he 
had his eyes the whole time fixed on the ground, as if to say; 
" I grant that I speak as a despicable being, and I grant that I 
am so ; but what shall I do, tormented as I am by ambition, to 
figure among the great, and to riot among tife wealthy. Have 
compassion on my weakness, or if you have not, I will console 
myself with the idea, that my meanness is only of the duration 



192 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

of half an hour, while its recompense — my rank, — will be per- 
manent." 

Mortier married in 1.799 the daughter of the landlord of the 
Belle Sauvage inn at Coblentz, who was pregnant by him, or by 
some other guests of her father. She is pretty but not hand- 
some ; and she takes advantage of her husband's complaUance^ 
to console herself both for his absence and infidelities. When 
she was delivered of her last child, Mortier positively declared 
that he had not slept with her for twelve months, and the babe 
has, indeed, less resemblance of him than of his valet-de-cham- 
bre. The child was baptised with great splendour; the Em- 
peror and the Empress were the sponsors, and it was christen- 
ed by cardinal Fesch. Buonaparte presented Madame Mortier 
on this occasion with a diamond necklace, valued at one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand livres (60001.) 

During his different campaigns, and particularly during his 
glorious campaign in Hanover, he has collected property to the 
amount of seven millions of livres, laid out in estates and lands. 
He is considered by other generals as a brave captain, but an 
indifferent chief; and among our fashionables and our courtiers, 
he is held up as a model of connubial fidelity ; satisfying him- 
self with keeping three mistresses only. 

There was no truth in the report, that his recal from Hano- 
ver, was in consequence of any disgrace ; on the contrary it 
was a new proof of Buonaparte's confidence and attachment. 
He was recalled to take the command of the artillery of Buona- 
parte's household's troops, the moment Pichegru, George and 
Moreau were arrested, and when the Imperial title had been 
resolved on. More resistance against this innovation was at 
that time .expected than experienced. 

Bernadotte, who succeeded Mortier in the command of our 
army in Hanover, is a man of a different stamp. His father 
was a chairman, and he was born at Paris in 1763. In 1779 
he enlisted in the regiment called La Vieille Marine.) where the 
Revolution found him a serjeant. This regiment was then 
quartered at Toulon, and the emissaries of anarchy and licenti- 
ousness engaged him as one of their agents. His activity soon 
destroyed all discipUne, and the troops instead of attending to 
their military duty, followed him to the debates and discussions 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 193 

of the Jacobin clubs. Being arrested and ordered to be tried 
for his mutinous scandalous behaviour, an insurrection liberated 
him, and forced his accusers to save their lives by flight. In 
April 1790 he headed the banditti, who murdered the governor 
of the fort St. Jean at Marseilles, and who afterwards occasion- 
ed the civil war in Comtat Venaigin, where he served under 
Jourdan, known by the name of Coufi-tell, or cut-throat, who 
made him a colonel, and his aide-de-camp. In 1794 he was em- 
ployed as a general of bi'igade, in the army of the Sambre and 
Meuse; and during the campaigns of 1795 and 1796 he served 
under another Jourdan, the general, without much distinction; 
except that he was accused by him of being the cause of all the 
disasters of the last campaign, by the complete route he suffer- 
ed near Neumark, on the 23d of August 1796. His division 
was ordered to Italy in 1797, where against the laws of nations, 
he arrested M. d'Antraigues, who was attached to the Russian 
legation. When the Russian ambassador tried to dissuade him 
from committing this injustice, and this violation of the rights 
of privileged persons, he replied ; " There is no question here 
of any other right or justice, than the right and justice of pow- 
er, and I am here the strongest. M. d'Antraigxje^s is our ene- 
my ; were he victorious, he would cause us all to be shot. I re- 
peat, I am here the strongest, et nous verrons." 

After the peace of Campo Formio, Bernadotte was sent as 
an ambassador to the court of Vienna, accompanied by a nume- 
rous escort of jacobin propagators. Having procured the liberty 
of Austrian patriots, whose lives, forfeit to the law, the lenity of 
the cabinet of Vienna had spared, he thought that he might at- 
tempt any thing; and, therefore, on the anniversary -day of the 
f^te for the levy en masse of the inhabitants of the capital, he in- 
sulted the feelings of the loyal, and excited the discontented to 
rebellion, by placing over the door and in the windows of his 
house, the tri-coloured flags. This outrage the Emperor was 
unable to prevent his subjects from resenting. Bernadotte's 
house was invaded, his furniture broken to pieces, and he was 
forced to save himself at the house of the Spanish ambassador. 
As a satisfaction for this attack, provoked by his oAvn insolence, 
he demanded the immediate dismissal of the Austrian minister, 
Baron Thugut, and threatened, in case of refusal, to leave Vi- 

c c 



194 SECRET HISTORY OE THE 

enna, which he did on the next day. So disgraceful was his 
conduct* regarded, even by the Directory, that this event made 
but little impression, and no alteration in the continuance of 
their intercourse with the Austrian government. 

In 1799, he was, for some few weeks, a minister of the war 
department, from which his incapacity caused him to be dis- 
missed. Wlien Buonaparte intended to seize the reins of state, 
he consulted Bernadotte, who spoke as an implacable jacobin, 
mitil a douceur of three hundred thousand livres (12,0001.) 
calmed him a little, and convinced him that the jacobins were 
not infallible, or their governments the best of all possible go- 
vernments. In 1801, he was made the commander in chief in 
the Western Department, where he exercised the greatest bar- 
barities against the inhabitants, whom he accused of being still 
chouans and royalists. 

With Angereau and Massena, Bernadotte is a merciless 
plunderer. In the summer 1796, he summoned the magis- 
trates of the free and neutral city of Nuremburg to bring him, 
tinder pain of military execution, within twenty-four hours, two 
millions of livres (84,0001.). With much difficulty this sum was 
collected. The day after he had received it, he insisted upon 
another sum, to the same amount, within another twenty -four 
houi's, menacing, in case of disobedience, to give the city up to 
a general pillage by his troops. Fortunately, a column of Aus- 
trians advanced, and delivered them from the execution of his 
threats. The troops under him were, both in Italy and in Ger- 
many, the terror of the inhabitants ; and, when defeated, were, 
from their pillage and murder, hunted like wild beasts. Berna- 
dotte has, by these means, within ten years, become master of 
a fortune often millions of livres (420,OOol.). 

Many have considered Bernadotte a revolutionary fanatic: 
but they are in the wrong. Money engaged him in the cause 
of the revolution, where the first crimes he had perpetrated, 
fixed him. The many massacres under Jourdan the cut-throat, 
committed by him in the court at Venaigin, no doubt, display a 
most sanguinary character ; a lady, however, in whose house, 
in La Vendee, he was quartered six months, has assured me, 
that to judge from his conversation, he is not naturally cruel; 
but that his imagination is continually tormented with the fcav 



'i 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. i9S 

of gibbets, which he knows that his crimes have merited ; an4 
that therefore when he stabs others, he thinks it commanded 
by the necessity of preventing others from stabbing him. Were 
he sure of impunity, he would perhaps shew humanity as well 
as justice. Bernadotte is not only a grand officer of the Legion 
of Honour, but a Knight of the Royal Prussian Order of the Black 
Eagle. 



LETTER XLIV. 

Paris, September 1805. 

My LORD, 

BUONAPARTE has taken advantage of the remark of 
Voltaiye, in his Hfe of Louis XIV, that this Prince owed much 
of his celebrity to the well-distributed pensions among men of 
letters in France and in foreign countries. According to a list, 
shown me by Fontanes, the president of the legislative corps, 
and a director of literary pensions, even in your country and in 
Ireland he has nine literary pensioners. Though the names of 
your principal authors and men of letters are not unknown to 
me, I have never read nor heard of any of those I saw in the 
list, except two or three as editors of some newspapers, maga- 
zines, or trifling and scurrilous party pamphlets. I made this 
this observation to Fontanes, who replied, that these men, 
though obscure, had' during the last peace been very useful, 
and would be still more so after another pacification; and that 
Buonaparte must be satisfied with these, until he could gain 
over men of greater talents. He granted also that men of true 
genius and literary eminence were, in England, more careful 
of the dignity of their character than those of Germany and 
Italy, and more difficult to be bought over ; he added, that as 
soon as the war ceased, he should cross the channel on a lite- 
rary mission, from which he hoped to derive more success than 
from that which was undertaken three years ago by Fieve. 
To thes« men of letters, who are themselves, with theijj 



196 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

writings, devoted to Buonaparte) he certainly is very liberal.—^ 
Some he has made tribunes, prefects, or legislators; others he 
has appointed his ministers in foreign countries ; and on those 
to whom he has not yet been able to give places, he bestows 
much greater pensions than any former sovereign of this coun- 
try allowed to a Corneille, a Racine, a Boileau, a Voltaire, a 
Crebillon, a D'Alembert, a Marmontel, and other heroes of our 
literature and honours to our nation. This liberality is often 
carried too far, and thrown av/ay upon worthless subjects, 
whose very flattery displays absence of taste and genius as well 
as of modesty and shdme. To a fellow of the name of Dagee, 
who sung the coronation of Napoleone the First, in two hun- 
dred of the most disgusting and ill-digested lines that ever were 
written, containing neither metre nor sense, was assigned a 
place in the administration of the forest department, worth 12 
thousand livres in the year, (5001.) besides a pi-esent, in ready- 
money, of one hundred Napoleone d'ors. Another poetaster, 
Barre, who has served and sung the chiefs of all former fac- 
tions, received for an ode of forty lines on Buonaparte's birth- 
day, an office at Milan, worth twenty thousand livres in the 
year, (8401.) and one hundred Napoleone d'ors for his travel- 
ling expenses. 

The sums of money, distributed yearly by Buonaparte's 
agents, for dedications to him by French and foreign authors, 
are still greater than those fixed for regular literary pensions. 
Instead of discouraging these foolish and impertinent contribu- 
tions which genius, ingenuity, necessity or intrusion lay on his 
vanity, he rather encourages them. His name is therefore 
found in more dedications published within these last five years, 
than those of all other sovereign Princes of Europe taken toge- 
ther for this last century. In a man, whose name, unfortunately 
for humanity, must always live in history, it is a childish and 
unpardonable weakness to pay so profusely for the short and 
uncertain immortality which soine dull or obscure scribbler or 
poetaster confers on him. 

During the last Christmas holidays I dined at Madame Re- 
misatu's in company with Duroc. The question turned upon 
literary productions and the comparative merit of the composi- 
tions of modern French and foreign authors. " As to the me- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 197 

rits or the quality," said Duroc, " I will not take upon me to 
judge, as I profess myself totally incompetent; but as to their 
size and quantity I have tolerably good information, and it will 
jiot therefore be very improper in me to deliver my opinion. I 
am convinced that the German and Italian authors are more 
numerous than those of my own country, for the following rea- 
sons. I suppose, from what I have witnessed and experienced 
for some years past, that, of every book or publication printed 
in France, Italy, and Germany, each tenth is dedicated to the 
Emperor; now, since last Christmas, ninety -six German and 
seventy-one Italian authors have inscribed their works to his 
Majesty and been rewarded for it ; while during the same pe- 
riod only sixty-six Frenchmen have presented their oiFerings to 
their sovereign." For my part I think Duroc's conclusion to* 
krably just. 

Among all the numerous hordes of authors who have been 
paid, recompensed or encouraged by Buonaparte, none have ex- 
perienced his munificence more than the Italian Spanicetti and 
the German Ritterstein. The former presented him a genea- 
logical table, in which he proved that the Buonaparte family, be- 
fore their emigration from Tuscany to Corsica, four hundred 
years ago, were allied to the most ancient Tuscany families, 
even to that of the house of Medicis : and as this house has 
given two queens to the Bourbons when sovereigns of France, 
the Buonapartes are therefore relatives of the Bourbons; and 
the sceptre of the French empire is still in the same family^ 
though in a more ivorthy branch. Spanicetti received one thou- 
sand louis d'ors (lOOOl.) in gold, a pension of six thousand li-. 
vres, (2501.) for life, and the place of a cheif du bureaux, in the 
ministry of the home department of the kingdom of Italy, pro- 
ducing eighteen thousand livres, yearly, (7501.). 

Ritterstein, a Bavarian genealogist, proved the pedigree of 
the Buonapartes as far back as the first crusades, and that the 
name of the friend of Richard Coeur de Lion was not Blondel, 
but Buonaparte ; that he exchanged the latter for the former, 
only to marry into the Plantagenet family ; the last branch of 
which has since been extinguished by its intermarriage and in- 
corporation with the house of Stuart, and that therefore Napo- 
leone Buonaparte is not only related to most sovereign Princes 



198 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

of Europe, but has more right to the throne of Great Britain 
than George the Third, being descended from the male branch 
of the Stuart's; while this prince is only descended from the 
female branch of the same royal house. Ritterstein was pre- 
sented with a snuff-box with Buonaparte's portrait set with dia- 
mond's, valued at twelve thousand livres, and received twenty- 
four thousand livres, ready-money, together with a pension of 
nine thousand livres (3751.) in the'year, until he could be bet- 
ter provided for. He was, besides, nominated a knight of the 
Legion of Honour. It cannot be denied but that Buonaparte 
rewards like a real Emperor. 

But artists as well as authors obtain from him the same 
encouragement, and experience the same liberality. In our 
different museums we therefore already see and admire up- 
wards of two hundred pictures, representing the different ac- 
tions, scenes, and achievements of Buonaparte's public life. It 
is true, they are not all highly finished or well composed or de- 
lineated, but they all strike the spectators more or less with 
surprise or admiration; and it is with us, as I suppose with 
you, and every where else, the multitude decide: for one com- 
petent judge or real connoisseur, hundreds pass, who sture, 
gape, are charmed, and inspire thousands of their acquaint- 
ance, friends, and neighbours, with their own satisfaction. Be- 
lieve me, Napoleone the First well knows the age, his contem- 
poraries, and, I fear, even posterity. , 

That statuaries and sculptors consider him also as a gene- 
rous patron, the numerous productions of their chissels in 
France, Italy, and Germany, having him for their object, seem 
to evince. Ten sculptors have already represented his passage 
over the mount St. Bernai^d, eighteen his passage over Pont de 
Lodi, and twenty-two that over Pont d'Arcole. At Rome, Milan, 
Turni, Lyons, and Paris, are statues of him, representing liis 
natui'al size ; and our ten thousand municipalities have each one 
of his busts; without mentioning the thousands of busts all over 
Europe, not excepting even your own country. When Buona- 
parte sees under the windows of the Thuilleries the statue of 
Cffisar placed in the garden of that palace, he cannot help say- 
ing to himself, " Marble lives longer than man." Have you 
any doubt that his ambition and vanity extend beyond the 
grave ? 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 199 

The only artist I ever heard of who was disappointed and 
unrewarded for his labour, in attempting to eternize the mci- 
mory of Napoleone Buonaparte, was a German, of the name of 
Schumacker. It is indeed allowed that he was more industri- 
ous, able, and well-meaning, than ingenious or considerate. 
He did not consider that it would be no compliment to give the 
immortal hero a hint of being a mortal man. Schumacker had 
employed near three years 'in planning and executing in marble 
the prettiest model of a sepulchral monument I have ever seen, 
read, or heard of. He had inscribed it, The future tomb of Buo- 
naparte the Great. Under the patronage of Count de Beust, he 
arrived here; and I saw the model in the house of this minis- 
ter, of the German Elector Arch-Chancellor, w^here also many 
French artists went to inspect it. Count de Beust asked De 
Segur, the grand master of the ceremonies, to request the Em- 
peror to grant Schumacker the honour of shewing him his per- 
formance. De Segur advised him to address himself to Duroc, 
who referred him to Denon, who, after looking at it, could not 
help paying a just tribute to the execution and to the talents of 
the artist, though he disapproved of the subject, and declined 
mentioning it to the Emperor. After three months attendance 
in this capital, and all petitions and memorials to our great 
folks remaining unanswered, Schumacker obtained an audience 
of Fouche, in which he asked permission to exhibit his model 
of Buonaparte's tomb to the public for money, so as to be ena- 
bled to return to his country. " Where is it now?" asked 
Fouche. " At the minister's of the Elector Arch-Chancel- 
lor," answered the artist. " But where do you intend to shew 
it for money?" continued Fouche. " In the Palais Royal" — 
" Well, bring it there," replied Fouche. The same evening 
that it was brought there Schumacker was arrested by a police 
commissary; his model packed up, and with himself put un- 
der the care of two gens-d'armes, who carried them both to the 
other side of the Rhine. Here the Elector of Baden gave him' 
some money to return to his home, near Aschaffenburgh, 
where he has since exposed for money the model of a grand 
tomb for a little man. I have just heard that one of your coun- 
trymen has purchased it for one hundred and fifty louis d'ors. 



200 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 



LETTER XLV. 

Paris, Sejjtember 1805. 



My lord, 



THOSE, who only are informed of the pageantry of our 
court, of the expenses of our courtiers, of the profusion of our 
Emperor, and of the immense wealth of his family and favour- 
ites, may easily be led to believe, that France is one of the hap- 
piest and most prosperous countries in Europe. But for those, 
■who walk in our streets, who visit our hospitals, who count the 
number of begp^ars and of suicides, of orphans and of criminals, 
of prisoners and of executioners, it is a painful necessity to re- 
verse the picture, and to avow that no where comparatively can 
there be found so much collective misery. And it is not here, 
as in other states, that these unfortunate, reduced, or guilty, 
are persons of the lowest classes of society ; on the contrary 
many, and, I fear, the far greater part, appertain to the ii-devant 
privileged classes, and descend from ancestors noble, respecta- 
ble, and wealthy, but by the revolution have been degraded to 
misery or infamy, and perhaps to both. 

When you stop but for a moment in our streets, to look at 
something exposed for sale in a shop-window, or for any other 
cause of curiosity or want, persons of both sexes, decently dress- 
ed, approach you, and whisper to you — " Sir, bestow your cha- 
rity on the Marquis, or Marchioness — on the Baron, or Baron- 
ess, such-a-one, ruined by the revolution ;" and you sometimes 
hear names on which history has shed so brilliant a lustre, 
that while you contemplate the deplorable reverse of human 
greatness, you are not a little surprised to find, that it is in your 
power to relieve with a trifle the wants of the grandson of an il- 
lustrious warrior, before whom nations trembled, or of the 
granddaughter of that eminent statesman, who often had in his 
hands the destiny of empires. Some few solitary walks, hicog- 
nitoy by Buonaparte, in the streets of his capital, would perhaps 
be the best preservative against unbounded ambition and con- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 201 

fident success, that philosophy could present to unfeeling ty-i 
ranny. 

Some author has written, " that want is the parent of indus- 
try, and wretchedness the mother of ingenuity." I know that 
you have often approved and rewarded the ingenious produc- 
tions of my emigrated countrymen in England;, but here their 
labours and their endeavours are disregarded : and if they can- 
not or will not produce any thing to flatter the pride or appetite 
of the powerful or rich upstarts, they have no other choice left 
but beggary or ci'ime, meanness or suicide. How many have 
I heard repent of ever returning to a country, where they have 
no expectation of justice in their claims, no hope of relief in 
their necessities, where death, by hunger, or by their own 
hands, is the final prospect of all their sufferings. 

Many of our ballad-singers are disguised emigrants; and I 
know a ci-devant Marquis, who is, incognito^ a groom to a con- 
tractor, the son of his uncle's porter. Our old pedlars com- 
plain that their trade is ruined by the Counts, by the Barons, 
and Chevaliers, who have monopolized all their business. Those 
who pretend to more dignity^ but who have in fact less honesty, 
are employed in our billiard and gambling-houses. I have seen 
two music grihders, one of whom was formerly a captain of in- 
fantry, and the other a counsellor of parliament. Every day 
you may bestow your penny or halfpenny on two veiled girls 
playing on the guitar or harp, the one the daughter of a ci-de- 
■vant Duke, and the other of a ci-devant Marquis, a general un- 
der Louis XVL They are usually placed, the one on the Bou- 
levards, and the other in the Elysian fields, each with an old 
woman by her side, holding a begging-box in her hand. I am 
told one of the women has been the nurse of one of those la- 
dies: What a recollection, if she thinks of the past, in contem- 
plating the present! 

On the day of Buonaparte's coronation, and a little before 
he set out with his Pope and other splendid retinue, an old man 
was walking slowly on the Quay de Voltaire, without saying a 
word, but a label was pinned to his hat with this inscription — i 
^^ I had sixty thousand livres rent^ (25001.); I am eighty years 
of age; and I request alms." Many individuals, even some 
of Buonaparte's soldiers, gave him their mite ; but as soon as 

Dd 



202 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

he was observed, he was seized by the police-agents, and has 
not since been heard of. I am told his name is de la Roche, a 
■ci-devant Chevalier de St. Louis, whose property was sold in 
1793 as belonging to an emigrant, though at the time he was 
shut up here as a prisoner, suspected of aristocracy. He has 
since, for some years, been a water-carrier; but his strength 
failing, he supported himself lately entirely by begging. The 
value of the dress of one of Buonaparte's running footmen 
might have been sufficient to relieve him for the probably short 
remainder of his days. But it is more easy and agreeable iix 
this country to bury undeserved want in dungeons, than to re- 
nounce unnecessary and useless show to relieve it. In the 
evening, the remembrance of these sixty thousand livres of the 
poor Chevalier deprived me of all pleasure in beholding the 60 
thousand lamps decorating and illuminating Buonaparte's pa- 
lace of the Thuilleries. 

Some of the emigrants, whose strength of body age has not 
impaired, or whose vigour 6f mind misfortunes have not de- 
pressed, are now serving as officers or soldiers under the Em- 
peror of the French, after having for years fought in vain for 
the cause of a king of France in the brave army of Conde. — 
Several are even doing duty in Buonaparte's household troops, 
where I know one who is a captain, and who, for distinguishing 
himself in combating the republicans, received the order of St. 
Louis, but is now made a knight of Napoleone's republican or- 
der, the Legion of Honour, for bowing gracefully to her Impe- 
rial Majesty the Empress. As he is a man of real honour, this 
favour is not quite in its place; but I am convinced, that should 
one day an opportunity present itself, he will not miss it, but 
prove that he has never been misplaced. Another emigrant, 
who, after being a page to the Duke of Angouleme, made four 
campaigns as an officer of the Uhlans in the service of the Em- 
peror of Germany, and was rewarded with the military order 
of Maria Theresa, is now a knight of the Legion of Honour, 
and an officer of the Mamelukes of the Emperor of the French. 
Four more emigrants have engaged themselves in the same 
corps as common Mamelukes, after being for seven years volun- 
teers in the legion of Mirabeau, under the Prince de Conde. It 
■were to be wished that the whole of this favourite corps were 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 203 

composed of returned emigrants. I am sure they would never 
6etray the confidence of Napoleone, but they would also never 
swear allegiance to another Buonajparte. 

While the humbled remnants of one sex of the ci-devant 
privileged classes are thus or worse employed, many persons 
of the other sex have preferred domestic servitude to courtly 
splendour, and are chambermaids or governesses, when they 
might have been maids of honour or ladies in waiting. Made- 
moiselle de R , daughter of Marquis de R , was offered 

a place as a maid of honour to Princess Murat, which she de- 
clined, but accepted at the same time the offer of being a com- 
panion of the rich Madame Moulin, whose husband is a ci-de- 
vant valet of Count de Brienne. Her father and brother suf- 
fered for this choice and preference, which highly offended 
Buonaparte, who ordered them both to be transported to Gua- 
daloupe, under pretence that the latter had said, in a coffee- 
house, that his sister would rather have been the housemaid of 
the wile of a ci-devant valet, than the friend of the wife of a ci- 
devant assassin and septembrizer. It was only by a valuable 
present to Madame Buonaparte than Madame Moulin, that 
Mademoiselle de R was not included in the act of proscrip- 
tion against her father and brother. 

I am sorry to say that returned emigrants have also been 
arrested for frauds and debts, and even tried and convicted of 
crimes. But they are proportionally few, compared with those 
who, without support, and perhaps without hope, and from want 
of resignation and submission to the will of Providence, have 
in despair had recourse to the pistol or dagger, or in the i-iver 
Seine buried their remembrance both of what they have been, 
and of what they were. The suicides of this vicious capital are 
reckoned upon an average to amount to one hundred in the 
month ; and for these last three years, one-tenth at least have 
been emigrants of both sexes ! 



204 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

LETTER XLVL 

Paris, September 1805. 

My LORD, 

NOBODY here, except his courtiers, denies, that Buona- 
parte is vain, cruel, and ambitious; but as to his private, per- 
sonal, or domestic vices, opinions are various, and even oppo- 
site. Most persons who have long known him, assert, that wo- 
men are his aversion; and many anecdotes have been told of 
his unnatural and horrid propensities. On the other hand, his 
seeming attachment to his wife is contradictory to these ru- 
mours, which certainly are exaggerated. It is true, indeed, 
that it was to oblige Barras, and to obtain her fortune, that he 
accepted of her hand, ten years ago; though insinuating, she 
is far from being handsome, and has long passed the period of 
inspiring love by her charms; her husband's conduct towards 
her, may therefore be construed perhaps into a proof of indif- 
ference towards the whole sex, as much as into an evidence of 
his affection towards her. As he knew tvho she ivas, when he 
received her from the chaste arms of Barras, and is not unac- 
quainted with her subsequent intrigues, particularly during his 
stay in Egypt, policy may influence a behaviour which has 
some resemblance to esteem: he may chuse to live with her, 
but it is impossible he can love her, 

A lady very intimate with Princess I^ouis Buonaparte, has 
assured me, that had it not been for Napoleone's singular incli- 
nation for this step-daughter of his, he would have divorced his 
wife the first year of his consulate; and that indirect proposals 
on that subject had already been made her by Talleyrand ; it 
was then reported that Buonaparte had his eyes fixed upon a 
Russian Princess, and that from the friendship which the late 
Emperor Paul professed for him, no obstacles to the match 
w6re expected to be encountered at St. Petersburgh. The un- 
timely end of this prince, and the supplications of his wife and 
daughter, have since altered his intent, and Madame Napoleone 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 205 

and her children are now, if I may use the expression, incor- 
porated and naturalised with the Buonaparte family. 

But what has lately occurred here will better serve to shew, 
that Buonaparte is neither averse nor indifferent to the sex. 
You read last summer, in the public 'prints, of the then minis- 
ter of the interior, Chaptal, being made a Senator, and that he 
was succeeded by our Ambassador at Vienna, Champagny.. 
This promotion was the consequence of a disgrace, occasionec] 
by his jealousy of his mistress, a popular actress. Mademoiselle 
George ; one of the handsomest women of this capital. He was 
informed by his spies, that this lady frequently, in the dusk of 
the evening, or when she thought him employed in his office, 
went to the house of a famous milliner in the rue St. Honore; 
where, through a door in an adjoining passage, a person who 
carefully avoided shewing his face, always entered immediately 
before or after her, and remained as long as she continued 
there. The house was then, by his orders, beset with spies, 
who were to inform him the next time she went to the milli- 
ner. To be near at hand, he had hired an apartment in the 
neighbourhood, where the very next day her visit to the milli- 
ner's was announced to him. While his Secretary, with four 
other persons, entered the milliner's house through the street 
door, Chaptal, with four of his spies, forced the door of the pas- 
sage open; which was no sooner done, than the disguised gal- 
lant was found and threatened in the most rude manner by the 
minister and his companions; he would have been still worse 
used, had not the unexpected appearance of Duroc and a whis- 
per to Chaptal put a stop to the fury of this enraged lover. 
The incognito is said to have been Buonaparte himself, who, 
the same evening, deprived Chaptal of his ministerial port folio, 
and would have sent him to Cayenne instead of to the senate, 
had not Duroc dissuaded his sovereign from giving an eclat to 
an affair, which it would be best to bury in oblivion. 

Chaptal has never from that day approached Mademoiselle 
George, and, according to report, Napoleone has also renounced 
this conquest in favour of Duroc ; who is at least her nominal 
gallant. The quantity of jewels with which she has recently 
been decorated, and displayed with so much ostentation in the 



206 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

new tragedy, The Templars, indicate, however, a sovereign 
rather than a subject for a lover. And indeed she already treats 
the directors of the theatre, her comrades, and even the public, 
more as a real than a theatrical princess. Without any cause 
whatever, but from a mere cafirice to see the camp on the coast, 
she set out without leave of absence and without any previous 
notice, on the very day she was to play ; and this popular and 
interesting tragedy was put off for three weeks, until she chose 
to return to her duty. When complaint was made to the pre- 
fects of the palace, now the governors of our theatres, Duroc 
said that the orders of the Emperor were, that no notice should 
be taken of this etourderie, which should not occur again. 

Chaptal was, before the revolution, a bankrupt chymist at 
Montpellier, having ruined himself in search after the philoso- 
pher's stone. To persons in such circumstances, with great 
presumption, some talents, but no principles, the revolution 
could not, with all its anarchy, confusion, and crime, but be a 
real blessing; as Chaptal called it in his Jirs( speech at the Ja- 
cobin Club. Wishing to mimic at Montpellier the taking of 
the Bastille at Paris, he in May 1790 seduced the lower classes 
and the suburbs to an insurrection, and to an attack on the cita- 
del, Avhich the governor, to avoid all effusion of blood, surren- 
dered without resistance. He was denounced by the munici- 
pality to the National Assembly for these and other plots and 
attempts ; but Robespierre and other Jacobins defended him, 
and he escaped even imprisonment. During 1793 and 1794, 
he monopolized the contract for making and providing the ar- 
mies with gunpowder; a favour for which he paid Barrere, 
Carnot, and other members of the Committee of Public Safety, 
six millions of livres, (250,0001.) but by which he pocketed 
thirty-six millions of livres, (1,500,0001.) himself. He was un- 
der the Directory, menaced with a prosecution for his pillage, 
but bought it off by a douceur to Rewbel, Barras, and Sieyes. 
In 1799 he advanced Buonaparte twelve millions of livres, 
(500,0001.) to bribe adherents for the new revolution he medi- 
tated, and was in recompense, instead of interest, appointed first 
counsellor of state; and when Lucien Buonaparte, in Septem- 
ber 1800, was sent on an embassy to Spain, Chaptal succeeded 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 207 

him in the ministry of the interior. You may see by this short 
account that the chymist Chaptal has, in the revolution, found 
the true philosophical stone. He now lives in great style, and 
has, besides three wives alive, (from two of whom he has been 
divorced,) five mistresses, with each a separate establishmenti 
This Chaptal is regarded here as the most moral character that 
has figured in our revolution, having yet neither committed a 
single muMer, nor headed any of our massacres. 



LETTER XLVIL 

Paris, Sefitember 1803,, 



Mt lord, 



I HAVE read a copy of a letter from Madrid, circulated 
among the members of our foreign diplomatic corps, which 
draws a most deplorable picture of the court and kingdom of 
Spain. Forced into an unprofitable and expensive war, famine 
ravaging some, and disease other provinces ; experiencing from 
allies the treatment of tyrannical foes, disunion in his family 
and among his ministers, his Spanish Majesty totters on a 
throne, exposed to the combined attacks of internal disaffec- 
tion and external plots, with no other support than the advice 
of a favourite, who is either a fool or a traitor, and perhaps both. 
As the Spanish monaixhy has been more humbled and re- 
duced during the twelve years administration of the Prince of 
Peace, than during the whole period that it has been governed 
by Px-inces of the house of Bourbon, the heir of the throne, the 
young Prince of Asturias, has, with all the moderation consist- 
ent with duty, rank, and consanguinity, tried to remove an up- 
start, universally despised for his immorality, as well as for his 
incapacity : and who, should he continue some years longer to 
rule in the name of Charles IV, >vill certainly involve his king 



208 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

and his country in one common ruin. Ignorant and presump- 
tuous even beyond upstarts in general, the Prince of Peace 
treats with insolence all persons raised above him by birth or 
talents, who refuse to be his accomplices or valets. Proud and 
certain of the protection of the queen, and of the weakness of 
the king, by him the Spanish nobility is not only humbled, pro- 
voked, and wronged, but openly defied and insulted. 

You know the nice principles of honour and loyalty that 
have always formerly distinguished the ancient fainilies of 
Spain. Believe me that, notwithstanding what appearances in- 
dicate to the contrary, the Spanish Grandee, who ordered his 
house to be pulled down because the rebel Constable had slept 
in it, has still many descendants ; but loyal men always decline 
to use that violence, to which rebels always resort. Soon after 
the marriage of the Prince of Asturia, in October, 1 80 1 , to his 
cousin, the amiable Marie Antoinette Therese, Princess Royal 
of Naples, the ancient Spanish families sent some deputies to 
their Royal Highnesses, not for the purpose of intriguing, but 
to lay before them the situation of the kingdom, and to inform 
them of the real cause of all disasters. They were received as 
faithful subjects and true patriots; and their Royal Highnesses 
promised every support in their power towards remedying the 
evil complained of, and preventing, if possible, the growth of 
others. 

The Princess of Asturia is a worthy grand-daughter of Ma- 
ria Therese, of Austria, and seems to inherit her character as 
well as her virtues. She agreed with her Royal consort, that 
after having gained the affection of the queen, by degrees, it 
would be adviseable for her to insinuate some hints of the dan- 
ger that threatened their country, and the discontent that agi- 
tated the people. The Prince of Asturia was to act the same 
part with his father, as the Princess did >vith his mother. As 
there is no one about the person of their Spanish Majesties, 
from the highest lord to the lowest servant, who is not placed 
there by the favourite, and act as his spies, he was soon aware 
that he had no friend in the heir of the throne. His conversa- 
tion with their Majesties confirmed him in this supposition, and 
that some secret measures were going on to deprive him of the 



COURT OF ST. CLOUi). 209 

place he occupied, if not of the Royal favour. All visitors to 
the Prince and Princess of Asturia were therefore watched by 
his emissaries ; and all the letters or memorials sent to them 
by the post, were opened, read, and, if contrary to his interest, 
destroyed, and their writers imprisoned in Spain, or banished 
to the colonies. These measures of injustice created suspicion, 
disunion, and, perhaps, fear, among the members of the Astu- 
fian cabal, as it was called: all farther pursuit, therefore, was 
deferred until more propitious times, and the Prince of Peace 
remained undisturbed and in perfect security, until the rupture 
with your coxmtry last Autumn. 

It is to be lamented, that with all their valuable qualities 
and feelings of patriotism, the Prince and Princess of Asturias 
do not possess a little dissimulation and more knowledge of the 
world. The favourite tried by all means to gain their good 
opinion, but his advances met with that repulse they morally 
deserved, but which, from policy, should have been suspended 
or softened, with hope of future accommodation. 

Bournonville, the ambassador of our court to the court of 
Madrid, was here upon leave of absence when war was declared 
by Spain against your country, and his first secretary, Herman, 
acted as charge d'affaires. This Herman has been brought up 
in Talleyrand's office, and is both abler and more artful than 
Bournonville : he possesses also the full confidence of our mi- 
nister, who in several secret and pecuniary transactions, has ob- 
tained many proofs of this secretary's fidelity as well as capa- 
city. The views of the cabinet of St. Cloud were therefore not 
lost sight of, nor its interest neglected at Madrid. 

I suppose you have heard that the Prince of Peace, like all 
other ignorant and illiberal people, believes no one can be a 
good or clever man who is not also his countryman, and that 
all the ability and probity of the world is confined within the li- 
mits of Spain: on this principle he equally detests France and 
England, Germany and Russia, and is therefore not much liked 
by our government, except for his imbecility, which makes him 
its tool and dupe. His disgrace would not be much regretted 
here, where we have it in our power to place or displace minis- 
ters in certain states, whenever and as often as we like. On this 

IP e 



210 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

occasion, . however, we supported him, and helped to dissolve) 
the. cabal formed against him; and that for the following rea- 
sons: 

By the assurances of Bournonville, Buonaparte and Talley- 
rand had been led to believe that the Prince and Princess of As- 
turia were well affected to France, and to them personally ; and 
conceiving themselves much more certain of this than of the 
good disposition of the favourite, though they did not take a di- 
rect part against him, at the same time they did not disclose 
what they knew was determined on, to remove him from the 
helm of affairs. During Bournonville's absence, howevei', Her- 
man had formed an intrigue with a Neapolitan girl, in the suite 
of the Princess of Asturia, who, influenced by love or bribes, 
introduced him into the cabinet where her mistress kept her 
correspondence with her Royal parents. With a pick-lock 
key he opened all the drawers, and even the writing-desk, in 
which he is said to have discovered written evidences, that though 
the Princess was not prejudiced against France, she had but an 
indifferent opinion of the morality and honesty of our present 
government, and of our present governors. One of these ori- 
ginal papers Herman appropriated to himself, and dispatched 
to this capital by an extraordinary courier, whose dispatches, 
more than the rupture with your country, forced Bournonville 
away in a hurry from the agreeable society of gamesters and 
prostitutes, chiefly frequented by him in this capital. 

It is not, and cannot be known yet, what was the exact plan 
of the Prince and Princess of Asturia and their adherents ; but 
a diplomatic gentleman, who has just arrived from Madrid, 
and who can have no reason to impose upon me, has informed 
me of the following particulars : 

Their Royal Highnesses succeeded perfectly in their endea- 
vours to gain the well-merited tenderness and approbation of 
their sovereigns, in every thing else, but when the favourite 
was mentioned Avith any slight, or when any insinuations were 
thrown out concerning the mischief arising from his tenacity 
of power, and incapacity of exercising it with advantage to the 
state. The queen was especially irritated vv'hen such was the 
subject of conversation or of remark; and she finally prohibited 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 211 

it under pain of her displeasure. A report even reached their 
Royal Highnesses, that the Princ^ of Peace had demanded their 
separation and separate confinement. . Nothing could therefore 
be effected to impede the progress of wickedness and calamity, 
but by some temporary measure of severity. In this disagree- 
able dilemma, it w^as resolved by the cabal to send the queen to 
a convent, until her favourite had been arrested and imprison- 
ed; to declare the Prince of Asturia regent, during the king's 
illness, (his majesty then still suffered from several paralytic 
strokes) and to place men of talents and patriotism, in the place 
of the creatures of the Prince of Peace. As soon as this revo- 
lution w^as organized, the queen would have been restored to 
full liberty, and to that respect due to her rank. 

This plan had been communicated to our ambassador, and 
approved of by our government; but when Herman, in such 
an honest manner, had inspected the confidential correspond- 
ence of the Princess of Asturia, Bournonville was instructed by 
Talleyrand to warn the favourite of the impending danger, 
and to advise him to be before-hand with his enemies. Instead 
of telling the truth, the Prince of Peace alarmed the King and 
Queen with the most absurd fabrications; and assured their 
Majesties, that their son and their daughter-in-law had deter- 
rnined not only to dethrone them, but to keep them prisoners 
for life, after they had been forced to witness his execution. 

Indolence and weakness are often more fearful than guilt. 
Every thing he said was at once believed ; the Prince and Pi'in- 
cess were ordered under arrest in their own apartments, with- 
out permission to see or correspond with any body : and so cer- 
tain was the Prince of Peace of a complete and satisfactory re- 
venge for the attempt against his tyranny, that a frigate at Ca- 
diz was ready waiting to carry the Princess of Asturia back to 
Naples. All Spaniards, who had the honour of their sovereigns 
and of their country at heart, lamented these rash proceedings; 
but no one dared take any measures to counteract them. At 
last, however, the Duke of Montemar, grand officer to the 
Prince of Asturias, demanded an audience of their Majesties, 
in the presence of the favourite. He began, by begging his 
Sovereign to recollect, that, for the place he occupied, he was 



212 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

indebted to the Prince of Peace; and he called upon him to de- 
clare, whether he had ever had reason to suspect him either of 
ingratitude or disloyalty. Being answered in the negative, he 
said, that though his present situation and office near the heir 
of the throne was the pride and desire of his life, he would have 
thrown it up the instant that he had the least ground to suppose 
that this Prince ceased to be a dutiful son and subject: but so 
far from this being the case, he had observed him in his most 
jnguarded moments-^in moments of conviviality had heard 
him speak of his royal parents with as much submission and 
I'espect as if he had been in their presence. " If," continued 
he, " the Prince of Peace has said otherwise, he has misled his 
king and his queen, being no doubt deceived himself. To over- 
throw a throne, and to seize it, cannot be done without accom- 
plices, without arms, without money. Who are the conspira- 
tors hailing the Prince as their chief? I have heard no name 
but that of the lovely Princess, his consort, the partaker of his 
sentiments as well as of his heart. And his arms ? They are 
in the hands of those guards his royal parent has given to aug- 
ment the necessary splendour of his rank. And as to his mo- 
ney ? He has none but what is received from royal and paternal 
Hiunificence and bounty. You, my Prince," said he to the fa- 
vourite, (who seemed much offended at the impression the 
speech made on their Majesties) " will one day thank me, if I 
am iMippy enough to dissuade dishonourable, impolitic, or un- 
just resentments. Of the approbation of posterity I am cer- 
tain." " If," interrupted the favourite, "the Prince of Astu- 

via and his consort will give up their bad counsellors, I hope 
their Majesties will forget and forgive every thing with my- 
self." ." Whether their Royal Highnesses," replied the Duke 

of Montemar, " have done any thing that deserves forgiveness, 
or whether they have any counsellors I do not knovv, and am 
incompetent to judge ; but I am much mistaken in the charac- 
ter of their Royal Highnesses, if they wish to purchase favour 
at the expense of confidence and honour. An order from his 
Majesty may immediately clear up this doubt." The Pi'ince 
of Peace was then ordered to write, in the name of the King, 
to his children, in the manner he proposed, and to command an 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 213 

answer by the messenger. In half an hour the messenger re- 
turned with a letter addressed to the favourite, containing only 
these lines: " A King of Spain is well aware that a Prince and 
Princess of Asturia can have no answer to give to such propo- 
sals or to such questions." After six days arrest, and after the 
Prince of Peace had, in vain, endeavoured to discover some- 
thing to inculpate their Royal Highnesses, they were invited to 
court, and reconciled both to him and their royal parents. 



LETTER XLVIIL 

Paris, September 1805. 



My toRD, 



I WILL add, in this letter, to the communication of the gen- 
tlemen, mentioned in my last, what I remember myself of the 
letter, which was circulated among our diplomatists concerning 
the intrigues at Madrid. 

The Prince of Peace, before he listened to the advice of 
Duke de Montemar, had consulted Bournonville, who dissuaded 
all violence, and as much as possible all noise. This accounts 
for the favourite's pretended moderation on this occasion. But 
though he was externally reconciled, and, as was reported at 
Madrid, had stvorn his reconciliation even by taking the sacrament, 
all the undertakings of the Prince and Princess of Asturia were 
strictly observed and reported by the spies whom he had placed 
round their Royal Highnesses. Vain of his success and victo- 
ry, he even lost that respectful demeanour, which a good, naj' 
a well-bred subject always shews to the heir of the throne, and 
the Princes related to his sovereign. He sometimes behaved 
with a premeditated familiarity, and with an insolence provok- 
ing or defying resentment. It was on the days of great festi- 
vities, when the court was most brilliant and the courtiers mos* 



214 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

numerous, that he took occasion to be most arrogant to those, 
whom he traitorously and audaciously dared to call his rivals. 
On the 9th of last December, at the celebration of the queen's 
birth-day, his conduct towards their Royal Highnesses excited 
such general indignation, that, the remembrance of the occa- 
sion of the fete, and the presence of their sovereigns could not 
repress a murmur Avhich made the favourite tremble. A sig- 
nal from the prince of Asturia would then have been sufficient 
to have caused the insolent upstart to be seized and thrown out 
of the window. I am told that some of the Spanish grandees 
laid even their hands on their swords, fixing their eyes on the 
heir of the throne, as if to say ; " command, and. your unwor- 
thy enemy shall exist no more." 

To prepare, perhaps, the royal and paternal mind for deeds 
which contemporaries always condemn and posterity will al- 
ways reprobate, the Prince of Peace procured a history to be 
written in his own way and manner, of Don Carlos, the unfortu- 
nate son of the barbarous and imnatural Philip H: but the 
queen's confessor, though like all her other domestics, a tool of 
the favourite, threw it into the fire with reproof, saying, " that 
Spain did not remember in Philip II the grand and powerful 
monarch, but abhorred in- him the royal assassin;" adding, 
"that no laws human or divine, no institutions, no supremacy 
whatever, could authorize a parent to stain his hands in the 
blood of his children." — These anecdotes are sufficient both to 
elucidate the inveteracy of the favourite, the abject state of the 
heir to the throne, and the incomprehensible infatuation of the 
king and queen. 

Our ambassador in the mean time dissembled always with 
with the Prince and Princess of Asturia ; and even made them 
understand that he disapproved of those occurrences so disa- 
greeable to them ; but he neither offered to put an end to them, 
nor to be a mediator for a perfect reconciliation with their so- 
vereigns. Me was guided by no other motive, but to keep the 
favourite in subjection and alarm, by preserving a correspond- 
ence with his rivals. That this was the case and the motive, 
can not be doubted, from the financial intrigue he carried on in 
the beginning of last month. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 215 

Foreigners have but an imperfect or erroneous idea of the 
amount of the immense sums Spain has paid to our govern- 
ment, in loans, in contributions, in donations, and in subsidies. 
Since the reign of Buonaparte, or for these last five years, up- 
wards of half the revenue of the Spanish monarchy, has either 
been brought into our national treasury, or into the privy purse 
of the Buonaparte family. Without the aid of Spanish money, 
neither would our gun-boats have been built, our fleets equip- 
ped, or our armies paid. The dreadful situation of the Spanish 
finances is therefore not surprising. — It is indeed still more 
surprising that a general bankruptcy has not already involved 
the Spanish nation in a general ruin. 

When, on his return from Italy, the recal of the Russian 
negotiator and the preparations of Austria convinced Buona- 
parte of the probability of a continental war, our troops on the 
coast had not been paid for two months, and his Imperial mi- 
nisters of finances had no funds either to discharge the arrears 
or to provide for future payments, until the beginning of year 
XIV, or the 22d instant: Bournonville was therefore ordered 
to demand peremptorily from the cabinet of Madrid forty mil- 
lions of livres, (1,666,0001.) in advance upon future subsidies. 
Half of that sum had indeed shortly before arrived at Cadiz 
from America, bvit much more was due by the Spanish govern- 
ment to its own creditors, and promised them in payment of 
old debts. The Prince of Peace, in consequence, declared that, 
however much he wished to oblige the French government, it 
was utterly impossible to procure, much less to advance such 
sums. Bournonville then became more assiduous than ever 
about the Prince and Princess of Asturia; and he had the im- 
pudence to assert, that they had promised, if their friends were 
at the head of affairs, to satisfy the wishes and expectation of 
tiie Emperor of the French, by seizing the treasury at Cadiz, 
and paying the state creditors in vales deinero ; notes hitherto 
payable in cash, and never at a discount. The stupid favourite 
swallowed the palpable bait; four millions in dollars were sent 
under an escort to this country, while the Spanish notes in- 
stantly fell to a discount of, at first, at four and afterwards of six 
per cent, and probably will fall lower still, as no treasures are 



S16 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

expected from America this Autumn. It was with two millions 
of these dollars that the credit of the bank of France was re-, 
stored, or at least, for some time^ enabled to re-assume its pay- 
ments in specie. Thus wretched Spain pays abroad for the 
forging of those disgraceful fetters, which oppresses her at 
home; and supports a foreign tyranny, which finally must pro* 
duce domestic misery as well as slavery. 

When the Prince and Princess of Asturia were informed 
of the scandalous and false assertion of Bournonville, they and 
their adherents not only publicly and in all societies contradicted 
it, but affirmed, that rather than obtain authority or influence 
on such ruinous terms, they would have consented to remain 
discarded and neglected during their lives. They took the 
more care to have their sentiments known on this subject, aS 
our ambassador's calumny had hurt their popularity. It was 
then first that, to revenge the shame with which his duplicity 
had covered him, Bournonville permitted and persuaded the 
Prince of Peace to begin the chastisement of their royal high- 
nesses in the persons of their favourites. Duke de Montemar, 
the grand officer to the Prince of Asturia; Marquis de Villa 
Franca, the grand equerry to the Princess of Asturia; Count 
de Minanda, cliamberlain to the king ; and the countess Dow- 
ager Del Monte, with six other court ladies and four other no- 
blemen, were therefore exiled from Madrid into different pro- 
vinces, and forbad to reside in any filace within twenty leagues 
of the residence of the royal family. According to the last let- 
ters and communications from Spain, the Prince and Princess 
of Asturia had not appeared at court since the insult offered 
them in the disgrace of their friends, and were resolved not to 
appear in any place where they might be likely to meet with 
the favourite. 

Among our best informed politicians here, it is expected 
that a revolution and a charge of dynasty will be the issue of 
this, our political embryo in Spain. Napoleone has more than 
once indirectly hinted, that the Buonaparte dynasty will never 
be firm and fixed in France, as long as any Bourbons reign in 
Spain or Italy. Should he prove victorious in the present con- 
tinental contest, another peace, and not the most advantageous, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 217 

will again be signed with your country — a peace, which, I fear, 
will leave him absolute master of all continental states. His 
family arrangements are publicly avowed to be as follow: — His 
third brother Louis, and his sons, are to be the heirs of the 
French empire. Joseph Buonaparte is, at the death or resig- 
nation of Napoleone, to succeed to the kingdom of Italy, includ- 
ing Naples. Lucien, though at present in disgrace, is consi- 
dered as the person destined to supplant the Bourbons in Spain ; 
where, during his embassy in 1800 and 1801, he formed cer- 
tain connections^ which Napoleone still keeps up and preserves. 
Holland will be the inheritance of Jerome, should Napoleone 
not live long enough to extend his power in Great Britain. Such 
are the modest pretensions our imperial courtiers bestow upon 
the family of our sovereign. 

As to the Prince of Peace, he is only an imbecile instrument 
in the hands of our intriguers and innovators, which they make 
use of as long as they find it necessary; and when that ceases 
to be the case, break it and throw it away. This idiot is made 
to believe, that both his political and physical existence depends 
entirely upon our support; and he has infused the same ridicu- 
lous notion into his accomplices and adherents. Guilt, igno- 
rance, and cowardice thus misled, may, directed by art, interest 
and craft, perform wonders to entangle themselves in the de- 
struction of their country. 

Bournonville, our present ambassador at Madrid, is the son 
of a porter, and was a porter himself, when he, in 1770, enlisted 
as a soldier in one of our regiments, serving in the East-Indies. 
Having there collected some pillage, he purchased the place of 
a major in the militia of the island of Bourbon, but was for his 
immorality broken by the governor. Returning to France, he 
bitterly complained of this injustice; and after much cringing 
in the anti-chambers of ministers, he obtained, at last, the cross 
of St. Louis, as a kind of indemnity. About the same time he 
also bought, with his Indian wealth, the place of an officer in 
the Swiss guard of Monsieur, the present Louis XVIII. Being 
refused admittance into any genteel societies, he resorted with 
Barras, and other disgraced nobles, to gambling-houses ; and he' 
even kept two himself when the revolution took place. He haxl 

Ff 



218 , SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

at the same time, and for a certain interest, advanced Madame 
D'Estainville money to establish her famous, or rather infa- 
mous house, in the Eue de Bonnes Enfans^ near the Palais 
Royal; a house that soon became the fashionable resort of our 
friends of liberty and equality. 

In 1790 Bournonville offered his services, as aide-de-camp, 
to our then hero of great ambition and small capacity, La Fay- 
ette, who declined the honour ; the jacobins were not so nice. 
In 1792 they appointed him a general under Dumourier, who 
baptized him, his Ajax. This modern Ajax, having obtained a 
separate command, attacked Treves in a most ignorant manner, 
and was worsted, with great loss. The official reports of our re- 
volutionary generals have long been admired for their modesty 
as well as -veracity ; but Bournonville has almost outdone them 
all, not excepting our great Buonaparte. In a report to the 
National Convention, concerning a terrible engagement of 
three hours, near Grewenmacker, Bournonville declares, that 
though the number of the enemy killed was immense, his 
troops got out of the scrape with the loss of only the little fin- 
ger of one of his riflemen. On the 4th of February, 1793, a 
fortnight after the execution of Louis XVI, he was nominated 
minister of the War Department; a place which he refused, 
under a pretence that he was better able to serve his country 
with his sword than with his pen, having already been in one 
hundred and twenty battles; where, he did not enumerate or 
state. On the 14th of the following March, however, he ac- 
cepted the ministerial port folio, which he did not keep long, 
being delivered up by his Hector, Dumourier, to the Austrians. 
He remained a prisoner at Olmutz until the 22d of November, 
1795, when he was included among the persons exchanged for 
the daughter of Louis XVI, her present Royal Highness the 
Duchess of Angoulesme. 

In the Autumn of 1796 he had a temporary command of 
the dispersed remnants of Jourdan's army; and in 1797 he was 
sent as a French commander to Holland. In 1799 Buonaparte 
appointed him an ambassador to the Court of Berlin ; and in 
1803 removed him in the same character to the court of Ma- 
dj'id. In Prussia his talents did not cause him to be dreaded, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 219 

nor did his personal qualities make him esteemed. In France 
he is laughed at as a boaster, but not trusted as a warrior. In 
Spain he is neither dreaded nor esteemed, neither laughed at 
nor courted; he is there universally despised. He studies to 
be thought a gentleman; but the native porter breaks through 
the veil of a ridiculously-affected, and outre politeness. Not- 
withstanding the complacent grimaces of his face; the self-suf- 
ficiency of his looks, his systematically-powdered and dressed 
hair, his shov/y dress, his counted and short bows, and his pre- 
sumptuous conversation, teeming with ignorance, vulgarity, 
and obscenity, he cannot escape even the most inattentive ob- 
server. 

The ambassador, Bournonville, is now between fifty and 
sixty years of age ; is a grand officer of our Imperial Legion of 
Honour ; has a brother who is a turnkey, and two sisters, one 
married to a tailor, and another to a merchant — who cries dogs* 
and cats'-meat in our streets. 



LETTER XLIX. 

Paris J September 1805. 



My lord> 



BUONAPARTE did not at first intend to take his wife 
with him, when he set out for Strasburgh ; but her tears, the 
effect of her tenderness and apprehension for his person, at last 
altered his resolution. Madame Napoleone, to tell the truth, 
does not like much to be in the power of Joseph, nor even in 
that of her son-in-law Louis Buonaparte, should any accident 
make her a widow. 

During the Emperor's absence the former is the president 
of the Senate ; and the latter the governor of this capital, and 
commander of the ti-oops in the interior ; so that the one dic" 



220 SECRET HISTORY QF THE 

tates the Senatus Consultum, in case of a vacancy of the throne, 
and the other supports these civil determinations with his mili- 
tary forces. Even with the army in Germany, Napoleone's 
brother-in-law, Murat, is as a pillar of the Buonaparte dynasty, 
and to prevent the intrigues and plots of other generals, from 
an imperial diadem; while, in Italy, his son-in-law, Eugenius 
de Bucharnois, as a viceroy, commands even the commander- 
in-chief Massena. It must be granted, that the Emperor has 
so ably taken his precautions, that it is almost certain that, at 
Jirst, his orders will be obeyed, even after his death ; and the 
will deposited by him in the Senate, without opposition, carried 
into execution. These very precautions evince, however, how 
uncertain and precarious he looks upon his existence to be, and 
that, notwithstanding addresses and oaths, he apprehends that 
the Buonaparte dynasty will not survive him. 

Most of the generals now employed by him, are either of 
his own creation, or men on whom he has conferred i-ank and 
wealth, which they might consider unsafe under any other 
prince but a Buonaparte. The superior officers, not included 
in the above description, are such insignificant characters, that 
though he makes use of their experience and courage, he does 
not fear their views or ambition. Among the inferior officers, 
and even among the men, all those who have displayed, either 
at reviews or in battles, capacity, activity, or valor, are all mem- 
bers of his Legion of Honour ; and are bound to him by the dou- 
ble tie of gratitude and self-interest. They look to him alone 
for future advancements, and for the preservation of the dis- 
tinction they have obtained from him. His emissaries artfully 
disseminate, that a Bourbon would inevitably overthrow every 
thing a Buonaparte has erected; and that all military and civil 
officers, rewarded or favoured by Napoleone the First, will not 
only be discarded, but disgraced, and perhaps punished by a 
Louis XVIII. Any person who would be imprudent enough 
to attempt to prove the impossibility, as well as the absurdity, 
of these impolitic and retrospective measures, would be instantly 
taken up and shot as an emissary of the Bourbons. 

I have often amused myself in conversing with our new ge- 
jjerals, and new officers; there is such a curious mixture of igr 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 221 

norance and information, of credulity and disbelief, of real boast- 
ing and affected modesty, in every thing they say or do in com- 
pany; their manners are far from being elegant, but also very 
distant from vulgarity; they do not resemble tliose, of w^hat we 
formerly called gens comme il faul^ and la bonne societe! nor 
those of the Bourgoisie, or the lower classes. They form a new 
species of fashionables, and a /laut ton miliiaire^ which strikes a 
person, accustomed to courts, at first, with surprise, and, per- 
haps, with indignation; though, after a time, those of our sex, 
at least, become reconciled, if not pleased with it, because there 
is a kind of military frankness interwoven with the military 
roughness. Our ladies, however, (I mean those who have seen 
other courts, or remember our other coteries) complain loudly 
of this alteration of address, and of this fashionable innovation ; 
and pretend that our military, under the notion of being frank, 
are rude, and, by the negligence of their manners and language, 
are not only offensive, but inattentive and indelicate. This is 
so much the more provoking to them, as our imperial courtiei'S 
and imperial placemen do not think themselves fashionable, 
without imitating our military gentry, who take Napoleone for 
their exclusive model and chief in every thing, even in man- 
ners. 

What I have said above, only applies to those ofRcers, whose 
parents are not of the lowest class, or who entered so early or 
so young into the army, that they may be said to have been 
'educated there ; and, as they advanced, have assumed the ton 
of their comrades of the same rank. I was invited, some time 
ago, to a wedding, by a jeweller, whose sister had been my 
nurse, and whose daughter was to be married to a captain of 
Hussars, quartered here. The bridegroom had engaged seve- 
ral other officers to assist at the ceremony, and to partake of 
the fete and ball that followed. A general of the name of Lie- 
beau was also of the party, and obtained the place of honour by 
the side of the bride's mother. At his entrance into the apart- 
ment, I formed an opinion of him, which his subsequent con- 
duct, during the ball, confirmed. 

During the dinner he seemed to forget that he had a knife 
and a fork, and he did not eat of a dish, (and he ate of them all. 



222 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

numerous as they were), without bespattering or besmearing 
himself or his neighbours. He broke two glasses and one plate, 
and, for equality sake, I suppose, when he threw the wine on 
the lady to his right, the lady to his left was inundated with 
sauces. In getting up from dinner, to take coffee and liqueurs, 
according to our custom, as he took the hand of the mistress 
of the house, he seized at the same time a corner of the napkin, 
and was not aware of his blunder, till the destruction of bottles, 
glasses, and plates, and the screams of the ladies, informed him 
of the havoc and terror his awkward gallantry had occasioned. 

When the ball began, he was too vain of his rank and pre- 
cedency to suffer any one else to lead the bi'ide down the first 
dance; but she was not, I believe, much obliged to him for his 
politeness; it cost her the tail of her wedding gown and a 
broken nail, and she continued lame during the remainder of 
the night. In making an apology to her for his want of dex- 
terity, and assuring her that he was not so awkward in hand- 
ling the enemies of his country in battle, as in handling the 
friends he esteemed in a dance, he gave no quarter to an old 
maiden aunt, whom in the violence of his gesticulation he 
knocked down with his elbow, and laid sprawling on the ground. 
He was sober when these accidents literally occurred. 

Of this original I collected the following particulars : Before 
the Revolution he was a soldier in the regiment of Flanders, 
from which he deserted and became a corporal in another regi- 
ment: in 1793 he was a drum-major in one of the battalions, 
in garrison in Paris. You remember the struggles of factions 
in the latter part of May, and in the beginning of June the same 
year, when Brissot and his accomplices were contending with 
Marat, Robespierre, and their adherents, for the reins of pow- 
er. On the first of June, the latter party could not get a drum- 
mer to beat the alarm, though they offered money and advance- 
ment; at last, Robespierre stept forwards to Liebeau, and said, 
" Citizen, beat the alarm march, and to day you shall be nomi- 
nated a general." Liebeau obeyed, Robespierre became victo- 
rious, and kept his promise; and thus my present associate 
gained his rank. He has since been employed under Jourdan 
in Germany, and under Le Courbc in Switzerland. When un- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 223 

der the former, he was ordered to retreat towards the Rhine, 
he pointed out the march route to his division, according to his 
geographical knowledge, but mistook upon the map the river 
Maine for a turnpike road, and commanded the retreat accord- 
ingly. Ever since, our troops have called that river La chausee 
de Liebeau. He was not more fortunate in Helvetia. Being 
ordered to cross one of the mountains, he marched his men in- 
to a glacier, where twelve perished, before he was aware of his 
mistake. 

Being afterwards appointed a governor of Blois, he there 
became a petty insupportable tyrant, and laid all the inhabitants 
indiscriminately under arbitrary contribution. Those who re- 
fused to pay, were imprisoned as aristocrats, and their property 
confiscated in the name and on the part of the nation ; that is 
to say, he appropriated to himself, in the name of the nation, 
every thing that struck his fancy ; and if any complaints were 
made, the owners were seized, and sent to the Revolutionary 
Tribunal at Paris, to be condemned, as the correspondents or 
adherents of the royalists of La Vendee. After the death of 
Robespierre, he was deprived of this profitable place, in which, 
during the short space of eleven months, he amassed five mil- 
lions of livres (208,0001.). The Directory then gave him a di- 
vision, first under Jourdan, and afterwards under Le Courbe. 
Buonaparte, after witnessing his incapacity in Italy, in 1800, 
put him on the full half pay, and has lately made him a com- 
mander of the Legion of Honour. 

His dear spouse, Madame Liebeau, is his counterpart. When 
he married her, she was crying mackerel and herrings in our 
streets; but she told me, in confidence, during the dinner, be- 
ing seated by my side, that her father was an officer of fortune, 
and a Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis. She assured me, 
that her hvisband had done greater services to his country than 
Buonaparte; and that, had it not been for his patriotism in 
1793, the Austrians would have taken Paris. She was very an- 
gry with Madame Napoleone, to whom she had been present- 
ed, but who had not shewn her so much attention and civility 
as was due to her husband's rank, having never invited her 
more than to one supper and two tea parties ; and, when invito- 



224 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

eel by her, had sent Duroc with an apology that she was unable 
to come, though the same evening she went to the opera. 

Another guest, in the regimentals of a colonel, seemed ra- 
ther bashful when 1 spoke to him. I could not comprehend 
the reason, and therefore inquired of our host, Avho he was?— 
(You know, that with us it is not the custom to introduce per- 
sons by name, &c. as in your country, when meeting in mixed 
companies.) He answered, "Do you not remember your bro- 
ther's jockey, FriaH" — " Yes," said I; " but he was estabHshed 
by my brother as a hair-dresser." — " He is the very sanie per- 
son," replied the jeweller; "he has fought very bravely, and is 
now a colonel of dragoons, a great favourite with Buonaparte, 
and will be a general at the first promotion." As the colonel 
did not seem to desire a renewal of acquaintance with me, I did 
not intrude myself upon him. 

During the supper the military gentlemen were encouraged 
by the bridegroom, and the bottle went round very freely ; and 
the more they drank, the greater and more violent became their 
political discussions. Liebeau vociferated in favour of republi- 
can and revolutionary measures, and avowed his approbation of 
requisitions, confiscations, and the guillotine ; while Frial in- 
clined to the regular and organised despotism of one, to secret 
trial, and still more secret executions; defending arbitrary im- 
prisonment, exiles, and transportations. This displeased Ma- 
dame Liebeau, who exclaimed, — " Since the colonel is so fond 
of an imperial government, he can have no objection to remain 
a faithful subject, whenever my husband, Liebeau, becomes an 
Antoine the first, Emperor of the French." Frial smiled with 
contempt. " You seem to think it improbable," said Liebeau. 
" I, Antoine Liebeau — I have more prospect of being an em- 
peror, than Napoleone Buonaparte had ten years ago, when he 
\vas only a colonel, and arrested as a terrorist ; and am I not a 
Frenchman? and is he not a foreigner? Come, shake hands 
with me ; as soon as I am an emperor, depend upon it you 
shall be a general, and a grand officer of the Legion of Honour." 
— -" Ah ! my jewel," interrupted Madame Liebeau ; " how hap- 
py v,'ill France then be. You are such a friend of peace ; we 
will then have no wars — no contributions — all the English my 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 225 

lords may then come here and spend their money — ^nobody 
cares about where or how. Will you not, then, my sweet love> 
make all the gentlemen here your chamberlains, and permit 
me to accept of all the ladies of the company for my maids of 
honour or ladies in waiting ?" 

" Softly, softly," cried Frial, who now began to be as intoxi- 
cated and as ambitious as the general ; " whenever Napoleone 
dies, I have more hope, more claim, and more right than you 
to the throne. I am in actual service; and had not Buonaparte 
been the same, he might have still remained upon the half-payj 
obscure and despised. Were not most of the field-marshals 
and generals under him now, above him ten years ago? May I 
not, ten years hence, if I am satisfied with yovi. General Lie- 
beau, make you also a field-marshal, or my minister of war? 
and you, Madame Liebeau, a lady of my wife's wardrobe, as 
soon as I am married? I, too, have my plans, and my views, 
and, perhaps, one day you will recollect this conversation, and 
not be sorry for my acquaintance." — " What, you a colonel, an 
emperor, before me, who have so long been a general ?" howl- 
ed Liebeau, who was no longer able to speak. " I would sooner 
knock your brains out with this bottle, than suffer such a pre- 
cedence ; and my wife a lady of your wardrobe ! she who has 
possessed from her birth the soul of an empress ! No, Sir ! never 
will I take the oath to you, nor suffer any body else to take it." 

" Then I will punish you as a rebel," retorted Frial; " and 
as sure as you stand here you shall be shot." Liebeau then 
rose up to fetch his sword, but the company interfered, and the 
dispute about the priority of claim to the throne of France, be- 
tween the ci-devant drummer and ci-devant jockey, was left un- 
decided. From the words and looks of several of the captains 
present, I think that they seemed, in their own opinions, to 
have as much prospect and expectation to reign over the French 
empire, as either the General Liebeau or Colonel Frial. 

As soon as I returned heme, I wrote down this curious con- 
versation and this debate about supremacy. To what a degra- 
dation is the highest rank in my unfortunate country reduced, 
when two such personages seriously contend about it ! I col- 
lected more subjects for meditation and melancholy in this low 

G g 



226 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

company (where, by the by, I witnessed more vulgarity and 
more indecencies than I had before seen during my life) than 
from all former scenes of humiliation and disgust since my re- 
turn here. When I, the next day, mentioned it to General de 
M , whom you have known an emigrant officer in your ser- 
vice, but whom policy has since ranged under the colours of 
Buonaparte, he assured me that these discussions about the im- 
perial throne are very frequent among the superior officers, and 
have caused many bloody scenes ; and that hardly any of our 
generals of any talents exist, who have not the same arriere 
fiensee of some day or other. Napoleone cannot, therefore, well 
be ignorant of the many other dynasties here now rivalling that 
of the Buonapartes, and who wait only for his exit to tear his 
senatus consultum, his will, and his family, as Avell as each 
other, to pieces. 



LETTER L. 

FariSf September 1805. 



My lord, 



I WAS lately invited to a tea party by one of our rich up- 
starts, who, from a scavenger, is by the revolution and by Buo- 
naparte transformed into a legislator, commander of the Le- 
gion of Honour, and possessor of wealth amounting to eighteen 
millions of livres, (750,0001.)- In this house I saw, for the first 
time, the famous Madame Chevalier, the mistress, and the in- 
direct cause of the untimely end, of the unfortunate Paul the 
first. She is very short, fat and coarse. I do not know whe- 
ther prejudice, from what I have heard of her vile, greedy, and 
immoral character, influenced my feelings, but she appeared to 
me a most artful, vain and disagreeable woman. She looked to 
be about thirty-six years of age ; and though she might, when 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 227 

younger, have been well made, it is impossible that she could 
ever have been handsome. The features of her face are far 
from being regular. Her mouth is large, her eyes hollow, and 
her nose short. Her language is that of brothels, and her man- 
ners correspond with her expressions. She is the daughter of 
a workman at a silk manufactory at Lyons ; she ceased to be a 
maid, before she had attained the age of a woman, and lived in 
a brothel in her native city, kept by a Madame Thibault, where 
her husband first became acquainted with her. Having then a 
tolerably good voice, and being young and insinuating, he in- 
troduced her on the same stage where he was one of the infe- 
rior dancers. Here in a short time she improved so much, that 
she was engaged as a supernumerary: her salary in France as 
an actress was, however, never above twelve hundred livres in 
the year, (501.) which was four hundred livres more than hei* 
husband received. 

He, with several other inferior and unprincipled actors and 
dancers, quitted the stage in the beginning of the revolution foi^ 
the clubs ; and instead of diverting his audience, resolved to re- 
form and regenerate his nation. His name is found in the an- 
nals of the crimes perpetrated at Lyons, by the side of that of 
a Fouche, a Collot d'Herbois, and other wicked offsprings of re- 
bellion. With all other terrorists he was imprisoned for some 
tim.e after the death of Robespierre; as soon as restored to 
liberty, he set out with his wife for Hamburgh, where some 
amateurs had constructed a French theatre. 

It was in the Autumn of 1795, when Madame Chevalier was 
first heard of in the north of Europe, where her arrival occa- 
sioned a kind of theatrical war between the French, American, 
and Hamburgh jacobins on one side, and the English and emi- 
grant loyalists on the other. Having no money to continue her 
pretended journey to Sweden, she asked the manager of the 
French theatre at Hamburgh to allow her a benefit, and to play 
on that night. She selected of course a part in which she 
could appear to the most advantage, and was deservedly ap- 
plauded. The very next evening the jacobin cabal called the- 
manager upon the stage, and insisted that Madame Chevalier 
should be given a regular engagement. He replied, that n® 



228 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

place suitable to her talents was vacant, and that it would be 
ungenerous to turn away, for her sake, another actress with 
whom the public had hitherto declared their satisfaction. The 
jacobins continued inflexible, and here, as well as every where 
else, supported injustice by violence. As the fiatriotism of the 
husband, more than the charms of the wife, was known to have 
produced this indecent fracas, which for upwards of a week in- 
terrupted the plays, all anti-jacobins united to restore order. In 
this they would, perhaps, have finally succeeded, had not the 
bayonets of the Hamburgh soldiers interfered, and forced this 
precious piece of revolutionary furniture upon the manager and 
upon the stage. 

After displaying her gratitude in her own way to each indi- 
vidual of the jacobin levy-en-masse in her favour, she was taken 
into keeping by a then rich and married Hamburgh merchant, 
who made her a present of a richly and elegantly-furnished 
house, and expended besides ten thousand louis-d'ors on her, 
before he had a mortifying conviction that some other had par- 
taken those favours for which he had so dearly paid. A coun- 
tryman of yours then showed himself with more noise than ho- 
nour upon the scene, and made his debut with a phxton and 
four, which he presented to his theatrical goddess, together 
with his own dear portrait, set round with large and valuable 
diamonds. Madame Chevalier, however, soon afterwards hear- 
ing that her English gallant had come over to Germany for 
economy, and that his credit with his banker was nearly ex- 
hausted, had his portrait changed for that of another and richer 
lover, preserving however the diamonds ; and she exposed this 
inconstancy even upon the stage, by suspending, as if in tri- 
umph, the new portrait fastened on her bosom. The English- 
man wishing to retrieve his phaston and horses, which he pro- 
tested only to have lent his belle, found that she had put the 
whole equipage into a kind of lottery, or raffle, to which all her 
numerous friends had subscribed, and that an Altona jew had 
won it. 

The successor of your countryman was a Russian noble- 
man, succeeded in his turn by a Polish jew, who was ruined and 
discarded within three months. She then became the property 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 229 

of the public, and by her active industry^ during a stay of four 
years at Hamburgh, she was enabled to remit to France, before 
her departure for Russia, one million two hundred thousand 
livres, (50,0001.). Her popularity was, however, at that period 
very much on the decline, as she had stooped to the most inde- 
licate means to collect money and to extort it from her friends 
and acquaintances. She had always lists of subscriptions in her 
pocket ; some, with proposals to play in her lotteries for trink- 
ets unnecessary to her; others, to procure her, by the assist- 
ance of subscribers, some trinkets which she wanted. 

I suppose it to be no secret to you, that the female agents 
of Talleyrand's secret diplomacy are frequently more useful 
than those of the other sex. I am told that Madame Roche- 
chouart was that friend of our minister who engaged Madame 
Chevalier in her Russian expedition, and who instructed her 
how to act her parts well at St. Petersburgh. I need not repeat 
what is so well known, that after this artful emissary had ruined 
the domestic happiness of the Russian monarch, she degraded 
him in his political transactions, and became the indirect cause 
of his untimely end, in procuring, for a bribe of fifty thousand 
roubles in money and jewels, the recal of P — Z. one of the 
principal conspirators against the unfortunate Paul. 

The wealth she plundered in the Russian capital within the 
short period of twenty months, amounted to much above one 
million of rovibles. For money she procured impunity to crime, 
and brought upon innocence the punishment merited by guilt. 
The scaffolds of Russia were bleeding, and the roads to Siberia 
crowded with the victims of the avarice of this female demon, 
who often promised what she was unable to pei'form ; and to 
silence complaint, added cruelty to fraud : and after pocketing 
the bribe, resorted to the executioner to remove those whom 
she had duped. The shocking anecdote of the Sardinian secre- 
tary, from whom she swindled near one hundred thousand rou- 
bles, and on whom she afterwards persuaded her imperial lover 
' to inflict capital . punishment, is too recent and too public to be 
unknown or forgotten. A Russian nobleman has assured me, 
that the number of unfortunate individuals, whom her and her 
husband's intrigues have caused to suffer capitally, during 1 800 



230 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

and 1801, were forty -six; and thatiaear three hundred persons 
besides, who could not, or would not, pay their extortions, were 
exiled to Siberia, during the same period of time. 

You may perhaps think that a low woman, who could pro- 
duce such great and terrible events, must be mistress of natu- 
ral charms, as well as of acquired accomplishments. As I have 
already stated, she can have no pretensions to either, but she 
is extremely insinuating, sings tolerably well, has a fresh and 
healthy look, and possesses an unusually good share of cun- 
ning, presumption, and duplicity. Her husband, also, every- 
where took care to make her fashionable; and the vanity of the 
first of their dupes increased the number of her admirers, and 
engaged the vanity of others in their turn to sacrifice them- 
selves at her shrine. 

The immorality of our age, also, often procured her popu- 
larity for what deserved, and, in better times, would have en- 
countered the severest reprobation. In 1797 an emigrant lodged 
at an inn at Hamburgh, where another traveller was robbed of 
a large sum in ready-money and jewels. The unfoi'tunate is 
always suspected ; and in the visit made in his room by the ma- 
gistrates, was found a key that opened the door of the apart- 
ment where the theft had been committed. In vain did he re- 
present, that had he been the thief, he should not have kept an 
instrument, which was, or might be construed into an argument 
of guilt: he was carried to prison, and though none of the pro- 
perty was discovered in his possession, would have been con- 
demned, had he not produced Madame Chevalier, who avowed 
that the key opened the door of her bed-room, which the smith 
who had made it confirmed, and swore that he had fabricated 
eight other keys for the same actress, and for the same purpose. 

At that time this woman lived in the same house with her 
husband, but cohabited there with the husband of another wife. 
She had also places of assignation Avith other gallants at private 
apartments, both in Hamburgh and at Altona. All these her 
scandalous intrigues were known even to the common porters 
of these cities. The first time after the affair of the key had 
become public, she acted in a play where a key was mentioned, 
and the audience immediately repeated, the key ! the key ! Far 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 231 

from being ashamed, she appeared every night in pieces se- 
lected by her, where there was mention of keys, and thus tired 
the jokes of the public. This impudence might have been ex- 
pected from her, but it was little to be supposed that her bare- 
faced vices should, as really was the case, augment the crowd 
of suitors, and occasion even some duels, which latter she both 
encouraged and rewarded. 

Two brothers of the name of de S , v/ere both in love 

with her, and the oldest, as the richest, became her choice. 
Offended at his refusal of a too large suA of money, she 

wrote to the younger de S , and offered to accede to his 

proposals, if, like a gentleman, he would revenge the affront 
she had experienced from his brother. He consulted a friend, 
who, to expose her infamy, advised him to send some confiden- 
tial person to inform her, that he had killed his elder brother, 
and expected the recompense on the same night. He went 
and was received with open arms ; and had just retired with her 
when the elder brother accompanied by his friend entered the 
room. Madame Chevalier, instead of upbraiding, laughed ; and 
the next day the public laughed with her, and applauded her 
more than ever. She knew very well what she was doing. 
The stories of the key and the duel produced for her more 
than four thousand louis d'ors, by the number of new gallants 
they enticed. It was a kind of emulation among all young men 
in the North, who should be foremost to dishonour and ruifi 
himself with this infamous woman. 

Madame Chevalier and her husband now live here in grand 
style, and have their grand parties, grand teas, grand assem- 
blies, and grand balls. Their hotel, I am assured, is even vi- 
sited by the Buonapartes, and by the members of the foreign 
diplomatic corps. In the house whei'e I saw her, I observed 
that Louis Buonaparte and two foreign ambassadors spoke to 
her as old acquaintances. Though rich to the amount of ten 
million of livres, (416,0001.) she, or rather her husband, keeps 
a gambling-house, and her superannuated charms are still to 
be bought for money, at the disposal of those amateurs who are 
fond of antiques. Both her husband and herself are still mem- 
bers of our secret diplomacy, though she complains loudly, thait 



232 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

of the two millions of livres (64,0001.) promised her, in 1799, 
by Buonaparte and Talleyrand, if she could succeed to persuade 
Paul I to withdraw from his alliance with England and Austria, 
only six hundred thousand livres (25,0001.) have been paid 
her. 

I cannot finish this letter without telling you, that before 
our military forces had reached the Rhine, our political incen- 
diaries had already taken the field, and were in full march to- 
wards the Austrian, Russian, and Prussian capitals. The ad- 
vanced guard of this dangerous corps, consists entirely of fe- 
males, all gifted with beauty and parts as much superior to 
those of Madame Chevalier, as their instructions are better di- 
gested. Buonaparte and Talleyrand have more than once re- 
gretted, that Madame Chevalier was not ordered to enter into 
the conspiracy against Paul, (whose inconsistency and violence 
they foresaw would make his reign short) that she might have 
influenced the conspirators to have fixed upon a successor, 
more pliable and less scrupulous ; and who would have suffer- 
ed the cabinet of St. Cloud to dictate to the cabinet of St. Pe- 
te rsburgh. 

I dined in company several times this last spring with two 
ladies, who rumour said have been destined for your P — of 
W — and D-^ of Y — ever since the peace of Amiens. Tal- 
leyrand is well informed what figures and what talents are i^e- 
quisite to make an impression on these princes, and has made 
his choice accordingly. These ladies have lately disappeared, 
and when inquired after, are stated to be in the country, though 
I do not consider it improbable that the^ are ah'eady arrived at 
head-quarters. They are both rather fair and lusty, above the 
middle size, and about twenty-five years of age. They speak, 
besides French, the English and Italian languages. They are 
good drawers, good musicians, good singers, and, if necessary, 
even good drinkers. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 241 

LETTER LL 

Paris, September 1803. 
My lord, 

HAD the citizens of the United States been as submissive 
to the taxation of your government as to the vexations of our 
ruler, America would perhaps have been less free,, and Europe 
more tranquil. 

After the treaty of Amiens had produced a general pacifi- 
cation, our government was seriously determined to reconquer 
from America, a part of those treasures its citizens had gained 
during the revolutionary war, by a neutrality which our policy and 
interest required, and which the liberality of your government en- 
dured. Hence, the acquisition we made of New Orleans from' 
Spain, and hence the intrigues of our emissaries in that colony, 
and the peremptory requisitions of provision for St. Domingo, by 
eur minister and our generals. Had we been victorious in St. Do- 
mingo, most of our troops there were destined for the American 
continent, to invade, according to circumstances", either the Spanish 
colonies on the Terra Firma, or the States of the American Com- 
monwealth. The unforeseen rupture with your country post- 
poned a plan that is far from being laid aside. 

You may perhaps think that, since we sold Louisiana, we 
have no footing in America that can threaten the peace or inde- 
pendence of the United States; but may not the same dictates 
that procured us at Madrid the -acquisition of New Orleans also 
make us masters of Spanish Florida? and do you believe it im- 
probable that the present disagreement between America and 
Spain are kept up by our intrigues and by our future views ? 
Would not a word from us settle in an instant, at Madrid, the dif- 
ferences, as well as the frontiers, of the contending parties in 
America? And does it not seem to be the regular and systematic 
plan of our government to provoke the retaliation of the Ameri- 
cans, and to show our disi'egard of their privilege of neutrality, 
and rights of independence ; and, that we insult them, only hecau3«^ 

I I 



242 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

"we despise them, and despise tliem only because we do not appre ) 
hend their resentment? 

I have heard the late American minister here assert, that the 
American vessels captured by Our cruisers, and condemned by 
our tribunals, only during the last war, amounted to above five 
hundred ; and their cargoes (all American property), to one hun- 
dred and fifty millions of li res, 6,000,000/. Some few days ago, 
I saw a printed list, presented by the American Consul to our 
minister of the marine department, claiming one hundred and 
twelve American ships, captured in the West Indies, and on the 
coast of America, within these last two years ; the cargoes of which 
have all been confiscated, and most of the ci'ews still continue pri- 
soners at Martinico, at Guadeloupe, or Cayenne. Besides these, 
sixty-six American ships, after being plundered, in part, of their 
cargoes e.t sea by our privateers, had been released; and their 
claims for property thus lost, or damage thus done, amounted to 
one million three hundred thousand livres, 54,000/. 

You must have read the proclamations of our governors in the 
West Indies, and therefore remember that one dated at Guada- 
loupe, and another dated at the city of San Domingo, both declare, 
without farther ceremony, all American and other neutral ships 
and cargoes good and lawful prizes, when coming from or destined 
to any port in the Island of St. Domingo ; because Buonaparte^ s 
subjects there were in a state of rebellion. What would these phi- 
lanthropists, who twelve years ago wrote so many libels against 
your ministers, for their pretended system of famine, have said, 
had they, instead of prohibiting the carrying of ammunition and 
provisions to the ports of France, thus extended their orders with- 
out discrimination or distinction ? How would the neutral Ameri- 
cans, and the neutral Danes, and their then allies, philosophers and 
jacobins of all colours and classes, have complained and declaimed 
against the tyrants of the seat ; against the enemies of humanity, 
liberty and equality. Have not the negroes now as much as our 
Jacobins had in 1793, a right to call upon all those tender-hearted 
schemers, dupes or impostors, to interest humanity in their favour? 
But, as far as I know, no friends of liberty have yet written a line 
in favour of these oppressed and injured men, whose former 
slavery was never doubtful, and who therefore had more reason 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 243 

to rise against their tyrants, and to attempt to shake off their yoke, 
than our French insurgents; who, free before, have, never since 
they revolted against hxwful authority, enjoyed an hour's freedom. 
But the Emperor Jacques the First has no propagators, no emis- 
saries, no learned mien, and no secret agents to preach insurrec- 
tion in other states, while defending his own usurpation ; besides, 
his treasury is not in the most brilliant and flourishing situation, 
and the crew of our white revolutionists are less attached to liberty 
than to cash. 

Our ambassador to the U**** S****, General T*******, is 
far from being contented with our friend, the president Jefferson, 
whose patriotic notions have not yet soared to the level of our pa- 
triotic transactions. He refused both to prevent the marriage of 
Jerome Buonaparte with a female American citizen, and to detain 
her after her marriage, when her husband returned to Europe. 
To our continual representation, against the liberties which the 
American newspapers take with our government, with our Em- 
peror, with our Imperial family, and with our Imperial ministers, 
the answer has always been, " prosecute the libeller, and as soon 
as he is convicted, he will be punished." This tardy and negative 
justice is so opposite to our expeditious and summary mode of 
proceeding, of punishing first, and trying afterwards, that it must 
be both humiliatihg and ofiensive. In return, when the Ameri- 
cans have complained to T*******, against the piracy of our pri- 
vateers, he has sent them here to seek redress, Avhere they also 
will to their cost discover that, in civil cases, our justice has not 
the same rapid march, as when it is a question of arresting or 
transporting suspected persons, or of tormenting, shooting, or 
guillotining a pretended spy, or supposed conspirator. 

Had the peace of Europe continued, Bernadotte was the per- 
son selected by Buonaparte and Talleyrand, as our representative 
in America; because we then intended to strike^ and not to nego- 
ciate. But, during the present embroiled state of Europe, an^in- 
triguer was more necessary there than either a warrior or a poli- 
tician. A man, who has passed through all the mire of our own 
Revolution, who has been in the secrets, and an accomplice of all 
our factions, is undoubtedly an useful instrument, where factions 
are to be created and directed,- where ivealth is designed for pil- 



244 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

lage, and a state for overthrow. General T******* is therefore 
in his place, and at his proper post, as ambassador in America. 

This son of a valet of the late Duke of Bouillon, T *******, 
called himself, before the Revolution, Chevalier de Grambouville, 
and was in fact, a Chevalier d'hidustiie, who supported him- 
self by gambling and cheating. An associate of Beurnonville, 
Barras, and other vile characters, he with them joined the co- 
lours of rebellion, and served under the former in 1792, in the 
army of the Moselle ; first as a volunteer, and afterwards as an 
aide-de-camp. In a speech at the Jacobin Club at Quesnoy, on 
the 20th of November 1 792, he made a motion, " that, throughout 
the whole republican army, all hats should be prohibited, and red 
caps substituted in their place ; and that not only portable guillo- 
tines, but fiortable Jacobin Clubs, should accompany the soldiers of 
liberty and equality." 

A cousin of his was a member of the National Convention, 
and one of those called Mountaineers, or sturdy partisans of Marat 
and Robespierre. It was to the influence of this his cousin that 
he was indebted first for a commission as an Adjutant-General, 
and afterwards for his promotion to a General of Brigade. In 
1793, he was ordered to march under the command of Santerrc, 
to La Vendee, where he shared in the defeat of the republicans 
at Vihiers. At the engagement near Roches d'Erigne, he com- 
manded for the first time a separate column, and the capacity and 
abilities which he displayed on that occasioi:» were such as might 
have been expected frona a man who had passed the first thirty 
years of his life in brothels and gambling-houses. So pleasant 
were his dispositions, that almost the whole army narrowly es- 
caped having been thrown and pushed into the river Loire. The 
battle of Doue was the only one in which he had a share, where 
the republicans were not routed ; but some few days afterwards, 
near Coron, all the troops under him were cut to pieces, and he 
was himself wounded. 

The confidence of his friends the Jacobins increased, how- 
ever, in proportion to his disasters, and he was in 1794, after the 
superior number of the republican soldiers had forced the rem- 
ijants of the Royalists to evacuate, what was properly called La 
Vendee, appointed a comijiander in chief. He had now an op- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. ' 245 

portunity to display his infamy and barbarity. Having establislied 
his head-quarters at Nantes, where he was safe, amidst the maS" 
sacres of women and children, ordered by his friend Carriere, he 
commanded the republican army to enter La Vendee in twelve 
columns, preceded by fire and sword ; and within four weeks, one 
of the most populous countries of France, to the extent and cir- 
cumference of sixty leagues, was laid waste ; not a house, not a 
cottage, not a tree was spared, all was reduced to ashes ; and the 
unfortunate inhabitants, who had not perished amid the ruin of 
their dwellings, were shot or stabbed while attempting to save 
themselves from the common conflagration. On the 22d of Ja- 
nuary 1794, he wrote the Committee of Public Safety of the Na- 
tional Convention : " Citizen Representatives ! a country of sixty 
leagues extent, I have the hapjiiness to inforna you, is now a per* 
feet desert; not a dwelling, not a bush, but is reduced to ashes ^ 
and of one hundred and eighty thousand worthless inhabitants, not 
a soul breathes any longer. Men and women, old men and chil- 
dren, have all experienced the national vengeance, and are no more. 
It was a ideasure to a true republican to see, upon the bayonets of 
each of our brave republicans, the children of traitors or their 
heads. According to the lowest calculation, I have dispatdied^ 
within three months, two hundred thousand individuals of both 
sexes, and of all ages — Vive la Refiublique ! !!" In the works of 
Prudhomme and our republican vwiters are inserted hundreds of 
letters, still more cruelly extravagant, from this ci-devant friend 
of liberty and equality, and at present faithful subject, and grand 
officer of the Legion of Honour, of his Imperial Majesty Napo- 
leone the First. 

After the death of Robespierre, T*******, then a governor 
at Bcllisle, was arrested as a terrorist, and shut up at du Plessis? 
until the general amnesty released him in 1795. During his im- 
prisonment, he amused himself with writing the memoirs of the 
war of La Vendee, in which he tried to prove that ail his barbari- 
ties had been perpetrated for the sake of humanity, and to save the, 
lives of republicans. He had also the modesty to announce that, 
as a military work, his production would be equally interesting as 
those of a Folard and Guibert. These memoirs, however, proved 
aiothing, but that he was equally ignorant and wicked, presump- 
tuous and ferocious. 



246 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

During the reign of the Directory, he was rather discarded, 
or only employed as a kind of recruiting officer, to hunt young 
conscripts; but, in 1800, Buonaparte gave him a command in the 
army of reserve ; and in 1802, another in the army of the interior. 
He then became one of the most assiduous and cringing courtiers 
at the Emperor's levees ; while in the Empress's drawing-room 
he assumed liis former air and ton of a chevalier, in hope to im- 
pose upon those who did not remember the nickname which his 
soldiers gave him ten years before, of Chevalier of the Guillotine. 

At a ball of the Buonaparte family, to which he was invited, 
the Emperor took the fancy to dance with his step-daughter 
Madame Louis. He therefore unhooked his sword, which he 
handed to a young colonel d'Avry, standing by his side. This 
Colonel, who had been a page at the Court of Louis XVI, knew 
that it would have been against etiquette, and even unbecoming of 
him, to act as a valet to Napoleone, while other valets were in the 
room ; he therefore retreated, looking round for a servant : " Oh !" 
said the Emperor! "I see that I am mistaken; here Generals," 
continued he, (addressing himself to half a dozen, with whose in- 
dependent principles and good breeding he was acquainted), " take 
this sword during my dance." They all pushed forward, but Tur- 
reaux and La Grange, another General and intjiguer, were fore- 
most ; the latter, however, received the preference. On the next 
day d'Avry was ordered ufion »ervice to Cayenne. 

T ******* has acquired, by his patriotic deeds in La Vendee, 
a fortune of seven millions of livres, 292,000/. He has the high- 
est opinion of his own capacity, while a moment's conversation 
will inform a man of sense that he is only a conceited fool. As 
to his political transactions, he has by his side, as a secretary, a 
man of the name of Petry, who has received a diplomatic educa- 
tion, and does not want either subtlety or parts ; and on him, no 
doubt, is thrown the dioidgery of business. During an European 
war, T*******'s post is of little relative consequence ; but should 
Napoleone Buonaparte live to dictate another general pacification, 
the U**** S**** will be exposed on their frontiers or in their 
interior, to the same outrages their commercial navy now experi- 
ences on the main. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 247 

LETTER LII. 

Parisy September 1805. 
MY Loac, 

A GENERAL officer, who is just arrived from Italy, has 
assured me that so far from Buonaparte's subjects on the other 
side of the Alps being contented and attached to his person and 
government, M^ere a victorious Austrian army to enter the plains 
of Lombardy, a general insurrection would be the consequence. 
During these last nine years, the inhabitants have not enjoyed a 
moment's tranquillity or safety. Every relation or favourite whom 
Napoleone wished to provide for, or to enrich, he has saddled 
upon them as in free quarters ; and, since 1796, when they first 
had the horiotir of our Emperor's acquaintance, they have paid 
more in taxes, in forced loans, requisitions and extortions, of eve- 
ry desription, than their ancestors or themselves had paid during 
the one hundred and ninety-six preceding years. 

Such is the public spirit, and such have been the sufferings 
of the people in the ci-devant Lombardy : in Piedmont, they are 
still worse off, having more national character, and more fidelity 
towards their Sovei-eign, than their neighbours ; they are also 
more cruelly treated. Their governor, General Menou, has caus- 
ed most of the departments to be declared under martial law, and 
without right to claim the protection of our happy constitution. 
In every city or town are organized special tribunals, the progeny 
of our revolutionary tribunals ; against the sentences of which no 
appeal can be made, though these sentences are always capital 
ones. Before these, suspicion is evidence, and an imprudent word 
is subject to the same punishment as a murderous deed. Mxir- 
mur is regarded as mutiny, and he who complains is shot as a 
conspirator. 

There exist only two ways for the wretched Piedmontese to 
escape these legal assassinations. They must either desert their 
country, or sacrifice a part of their property. In the former case, 
if retaken, they are condemned as emigrants ; and in the latter 
they incur the risk, that those to whom they have already given 



248 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

a part of their possessions will also require the remainder, and 
having obtained it, to enjoy in security the spoil, will send them 
ta the tribunals and to death. Menou has a fixed tariff for his 
protection, regulated according to the riches of each person ; and 
the tax-gatherers collect these arbitrary contributions with the 
regular ones ; so little pains are taken to conceal or to disguise 
these robberies, 

Menou, by turns a nobleman and a sans-culotte, a Christian, 
and a Mussulman, is wicked and profligate, not from the impulse 
of the moiTtient, or of any sudden gust of passion, but coldly and 
deliberately. He calculates with sangfroid the profit and the risk 
of every infamous action he proposes to commit, and determines 
accordingly. He owed some riches, and the rank of a major-ge- 
neral to the bounty of Louis XVI ; but when he considered the 
immense value of the revolutionary plunder, called national pro- 
perty, and that those who confiscated could also promote, he did 
not hesitate what party to take. A traitor is generally a coward ; 
he has every where experienced defeats ; he was defeated by his 
Royalist countrymen in 1793, by his Mahometan sectaries in 
1 800, and by your countrymen in 1801. 

Besides his Turkish wife, Menou has in the same house with 
her one Italian and two French girls, who live openly with him ; 
but who are obliged to keep themselves, by selling their influence 
and .protection, and perhaps sometimes even their personal fa- 
vours. He has also in his hotel several gambling tables, where 
those who are too bashful to address themselves to himself or his 
mistresses, may deposit their donations, and if they are thought 
sufficient, the hint is taken, and their business done. He never 
pays any debts, and never buys any thing for ready money, and 
all persons of his suite, or appertaining to his establishment, have 
the same privilege. Troublesome creditors are recommended to 
the care of the special tribunals ; which also find means to reduce 
the obstinacy of those refractory merchants or traders who refuse 
giving any credit. All the money he extorts or obtains is brought 
to this capital, and laid out by his agents in purchasing estates, 
which, from his advanced age, and weak constitution, he has little 
prospect of long enjoying. He is a grand officer of Buonaparte's 
Legion of Honour ; and has a long claim to that distinction, be- 
cause, as early as on the 25th of June 1790, he made a motion in 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. ^49 

the National Assembly, to suppress all former Royal orders in 
France, and to create in their place only a national one. Always 
an incorrigible flatterer, when Napoleone proclaimed himself Ali 
the Mussulman, Menou professed himself Abdaliah the believer 
in the Alcoran. 

The late vice-president of the Italian republic, Melzi-Eril, is 
now in complete disgrace with his Sovereign Napoleone the First. 
If persons of rank and property would read through the list of 
those, their equals by birth and wealth, who, after being seduced 
by the sophistry of impostors, dishonoui'ed and exposed them- 
selves by joining in the Revolution, they jnight see that none of 
them have escaped insults, many have suffered death, and all have 
been or are vile slaves, at the mercy of the whip of some upstart 
beggar, and trampled upon by men started up from the mud of 
lowest birth and basest morals. If their revolutionary mania were 
not incurable, this truth, and this evidence, would retain them with- 
in their duty, so corresponding Avith their real interest, and prevent 
them fi'om being any longer borne along by a current of infamy 
and danger, and preserve them from being lost upon quicksands 
or dashed against rocks. 

The conduct and fate of the Italian nobleman and Spanish 
grandee, Melzi-Eril, has induced me to make these reflections. 
Wealthy, as well as elevated, he might have passed his life in un- 
intemipted tranquillity, enjoying its comforts without experienc- 
ing its vicissitudes ; with the esteem of his contemporaries, and 
without reproach from posterity or from his own conscience. 
Unfortunately for him, a journey into this country made him ac- 
quainted both with our philosophers and with our philosophical 
works ; and he had neither natural capacity to distinguish errors 
from reality, nor judgment enough to perceive, that what appear- 
ed improving and charming in theory, frequently became destruc- 
tive and improper, when attempted to be put into practice. Re- 
turned to his own country, his acquired half-learning made him 
wholly dissatisfied with his government, with his religion, and 
with himself. In our Revolution, he thought that he saw the first 
approach towards the perfection of the human species ; and^ that 
it would soon make mankind as good, and as regenerated in so- 
ciety as was proniised in books. With our own regenerators, he 
extenuated the crimes, which sullied their work from its first page;, 

K K 



2'50 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

and declared them even necessary to make the conclusion so much 
the more complete. When, therefore, Buonaparte, in 1796, en- 
tered the capital of Lombardy, Melzi was among the fii'st of the 
Italian nobility who hailed him as a deliverer. 

The numerous vexations, and repeated pillage of our govern- 
ment, generals, commissaries, and soldiers, did not abate his zeal, 
nor alter his opinion. " The faults and sufferings of individuals,'' 
he said, " are nothing to the goodness of the cause, and do not 
impair the utility of the whole." To him, every thing the Revo- 
lution produced was the best ; the murder of thousands and the 
I'uin of millions were with him nothing, compared with the bene- 
fit the universe would one day derive from the principles and in- 
struction of our armed and unarmed philosophers. In recompence 
for so much complacency, and such great patriotism, Buonaparte 
appointed him, in 1797, a plenipotentiary from the Cisalpine Re- 
public to the Congress at Radstadt ; and in 1802, a vice-president 
of the Italian Republic. 

As Melzi was a sincere and disinterested republican fanatic, 
he did not much appi'ove of the strides Buonaparte made towards 
a sovereignty that annihilated the sovereignty of his sovereign 
people. In a conference, however, with Talleyrand at Lyons, in 
February 1802, he was convinced that this age was not yet ripe 
for all the improvements our philosophers intended to confer on 
it ; and that to prevent it from retrograding to the point where it 
was found by our Revolution, it was necessary that it should be 
ruled by enlightened men, such as he and Buonaparte, to whom 
he advised him by all means never to give the least hint about 
liberty and equality. Our minister ended his fraternal counsel 
with obliging Melzi to sign a stipulation for a yearly sum, as a 
douceur for the place he occupied. 

The sweets of power shortly caused Melzi to forget both the 
tenets of his philosophy and his schemes of regeneration. He 
trusted so much to the promises of Buonaparte and Talleyrand, 
that he believed himself destined to reign for life, and was there- 
fore not a little surpiised when he was ordered by Napoleone the 
First, to descend, and salute Eugenius de Beauharnois, as the de- 
puty sovereign of the Sovereign King of Italy. He was not phi- 
losopher enough to conceal his chagrin, and bowed with such a 
bad gyi'ace to the itew Viceroy, that it vas visible he Avould have 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 251 

preferred seeing in that situation an Austrian Archduke, as a gq- 
vernor-general. To soften his disappointment, Buonaparte offer- 
ed to make him a Prince, and with that rank indemnify him for 
breaking the promises given at Lyons ; where it is known that 
the influence of Melzi, more than the intrigues of Talleyrand, de- 
termined the Italian Consulta in the choice of a president. 

Immediately after Buonaparte's return to France, Melzi left 
Milan, and retired to an estate in Tuscany : from that place he 
wrote to Talleyrand a letter, full of reproach, and concluded by 
asking leave to pass the I'emainder of his days in Spain, among 
his relatives. An answer was presented him by an officer of 
Buonaparte's gens-d'armes d'Elite, in which he was forbid to quit 
Italy, and ordered to return with the officer to Milan, and there 
occupy his office of Arch-Chancellor, to which he had been nomi- 
nated. Enraged at such treatment, he endeavoured to kill him- 
self with a dose of poison, but his attempt did not succeed. His 
health was, however, so much injured by it, that it is not supposed 
he can live long. What a lesson for reformers and innovators ! 



LETTER LIII. 

Paris.) September 1805. 



MY lORD, 



A RIDICULOUS affair lately occasioned a great deal of bus- 
tle among the members of our foreign diplomatic corps. When 
Buonaparte demanded for himself and for his wife the title of 
Imperial Majesty, and for his brothers and sisters that of Imperial 
Highness, he also insisted on the salutation of a Serene Highness 
being given to his Arch-Chancellor Cambaceres, and his Arch- 
Treasurer Le Brun. The political consciences of the independent 
representatives of independent continental Princes immediately 
took the alarm at the latter innovation ; as the appellation of Serene 
Highness has never hitherto been bestowed on persons who had 
not princely rank. They complained to Talleyrand, th^y petitioned' 



25^ SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Buonaparte, and they dispatched couriers to their respective 
Courts. The minister smiled ; the Emperor cursed, and their own 
cabinets deliberated. All routs, all assemblies, all circles, and all 
balls, were at a stop. Cambaceres applied to his Sovereign, to 
support his pretensions, as connected Avith his own dignity ; and 
the diplomatic corps held forward their dignity as opposing the 
pretensions of Cambaceres. In this dilemma, Buonaparte order- 
ed all the ambassadors, ministers, envoys, and agents en masse.^ to 
the castle of the Thuileries. After hearing, with apparent pa- 
tience, their arguments in favour of established etiquette and cus- 
toms, he remained inflexible, upon the ground that he, as master, 
had a right to confer what titles he chose, within his own domi- 
nions, on his own subjects; and that those foreigners who refused 
to submit to his regulations might return to their own country. 
This plain explanation neither effecting a conversion nor making 
any impression, he grew warm, and left the refractory diploma- 
tists, with these remarkable words : " Were I to create my Ma- 
meluke, Rostan, a King, both you and your masters Should acknow- 
ledge him in that rank." 

After this conference, most of their Excellencies were seized 
with terror and fear, and would, perhaps, have subscribed to the 
commands of our Emperor, had not some of the wisest among 
them proposed, and obtained the consent of the rest, to apply once 
niore to Talleyrand, and purchase by some douceur, his assistance 
in this great business. The heart of our minister is easily soften- 
ed ; and he assented , upon certain conditions, to lay the whole be- 
fore his Sovereign in such a manner that Cambacei'es should be 
made a Prince, as well as a Serene Highness. 

It is said that Buonaparte was not easily persuaded to this 
measure, and did not consent to it, before the minister remarked, 
that his condescension in this insignificant opposition to his will, 
would proclaim his moderation and generosity, and empower him 
to insist on obedience, when matters of the greatest consequence 
should be in question or dispute. Thus our regicide Cambace- 
res owes his princely title to the shallow intrigues of the agents 
of legitimate Sovereigns. Their nicety in talking of innovations 
with regard to him, after they had without difficulty hailed a sans- 
culotte an Emperor, and other sans-culottes Imperial Highnesses, 
vvas as absurd as improper. Report, however, states what is very 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 25a 

probable, that they were merely the duped tools of Cambaceres's 
ambition and vanity, and of Talleyrand's corruption and cupidity. 

Cambaceres expected to have been elevated to a Prince, on 
the same day that he was made a Serene Highness ; but Joseph 
Buonaparte represented to his brother that too many other Prince- 
doms would diminish the respect and value of the Princedoms of 
the Buonaparte family. Cambaceres knew that Talleyrand had 
some reason at that period to be discontented with Joseph, and 
therefore asked his advice, how to get made a Prince against the 
wishes of this Grand Elector. After some consideration, the mi- 
nister replied that he was acquainted with one way, which would 
with his support certainly succeed ; but it required a million of 
livres to set the wheels in motion, and keep them going after- 
wards. The hint was taken, and an agreement signed for one 
million, payable on the day when the princely patent should be 
delivered to the Arch-Chancellor. 

Among the mistresses provided by our minister for the 

members of the foreign diplomatic coi^is, Madame B s is 

one of the ablest in the way of intrigue. She was instructed to 
alarm her donne amie, the Bavarian minister Cetto, who is always 
bustling and pushing himself forwards in the grand questions of 
etiquette. A fool rather than a rogue, and an intriguer while he 
thinks himself a negotiator, he was happy to have this occasion to 
prove his penetrating genius and astonishing information. A con- 
vocation of the diplomatic corps was therefore called, and the 
suggestions of Cetto were regarded as an inspiration, and approv- 
ed of, with a resolution to persevere unanimously. At their first 
audience with Talleyrand on this subject he seemed to incline in 
their favour ; but as soon as he observed how much they shewed 
themselves interested about this trifling punctilio, it occurred to 
him that they as well as Cambaceres might in some Avay or other 

reward the service he intended to perform. Madame B s 

was again sent for ; and she once niore advised her lover, who 
again advised, his colleagues. Their scanty purses were opened, 
and a subscription entered into for a very, valuable diamond, which, 
Avith the million of the Arch-Chancellor, gave satisfaction to all 
parties ; and even Joseph Buonaparte was reconciled, upon the 
consideration that Cambaceres has no chikben, and that therefore 
the Prince will expire with the Grand Officer of State. 



2S4, SECT^ET HISTORY OF THE 

Cambacercs, though before the Revolution a nobleman ot* a 
parliamentary family, was so degraded and despised for his unna- 
tural and beastly propensities, that to see him in the ranks of re- 
bellion was not unexpected. Born in Languedoc, his countrymen 
were the first to suffer from his revolutionary proceedings, and 
reproached him as one of the most active instruments of persecu- 
tion against the clergy of Thoulouse, and as one of the causes of 
all the blood that flowed in consequence. A coward as well as a 
traitor, after the death of Louis XVI he never dared ascend the 
tribune of the National Convention, but always gave a silent vote 
to all the atrocious laws proposed and carried by Marat, Robes- 
pierre, and their accomplices. It was in 1795, when the reign of 
terror had ceased, that he first displayed his zeal for anarchy and 
his hatred to royalty : his contemptible and disgusting vices were 
however so publicly reprobated, that even the Directory dared 
not nominate him a minister of justice, a place for which he in- 
trigued in vain from 1796 to 1799 : when Buonaparte, either not 
so scrupulous, or setting himself above the public opinion, caused 
him to be called to the Consulate : which, in 1802, was ensured 
him for life, but exchanged in 1804, for the ofTice of an Arch- 
Chancellor. 

He is now worth thirty millions of livrcs, 1,250,000/. all ho- 
nestly obtained by his revolutionary industry. Besides a Prince, 
a Serene Highness, an Arch-Chancellor, a Grand Officer of the 
Legion of Honour, he is also a Knight of the Prussian Black Eagle! 
For his brother, who was for a long time an emigrant clergyman, 
and whom he then renounced as a fanatic, he has now procured 
the Arch-Bishoprick of Rouen, and a Cardinal's hat. His Emi- 
nence is also a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honouf in Francc«- 
and a Pope in petto at Rome. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 255 

LETTER LIV. 

PariSf September 1805. 

mi toRu, 

NO sovereign prince has more incurred the hatred of Buonfi- 
parte than the present King of Sweden ; and 1 have heard from 
good authority, that our government spares neither bribes nof 
intrigues to move the sails of those factions, which were dissolved, 
but not crushed, after the murder of Gustavus IIL The Swedes 
are generally brave and loyal, but their history bears witness that 
they are easily misled ; all their grand achievements are their own, 
and the consequences of their national spirit and national valour, 
while all their disasters have been effected by the influence of 
foreign gold, and of foreign machinations. Had they not been 
the dupes of the plots and views of the cabinets of Versailles and 
St. Petersburgh, their country might have been as powerful in 
the nineteenth century as it was in the seventeenth. 

That Gustavus Adolphus IV both knew the danger of Eu- 
rope, and indicated the remedy, his Majesty's notes, as soon as of 
age, presented by the able and loyal minister Bildt, to the Diet 
of Ratisbon, evince. Had they been more attended to during 1798 
and 1799, Buonaparte would not perhaps have now been so great, 
but the continent would have remained more free and more inde- 
pendent. They were the first causes of our Emperor's official 
anger against the cabinet of Stockholm. 

When, however, his Swedish Majesty entered into the 
northern league, his ambassador. Baron Ehrensward, was for some 
lime treated here with no insults distinct or different from . those 
to which all foreign diplomatic agents have been accustomed to, 
during the present reign ; but when he demanded reparation for 
the piracies committed, during the last war, by our privateers, ou 
the cpmmerce of his njdion, the tone was changed ; and when his 
Sovereign, in 1803, was on a visit to his father-in-law, the Elector 
of Baden, and thers, preferred the agreeable company of the un- 
fortunate Duke of Enghien to the society of our minister. Baron 
Ehrensward never entered Napoleone's diplomatic circle, or 
Madame Napoleone's drawing-room, without hearing rebukes 



256 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

and experiencing disgusts. One day, when more than usually 
attacked, he said, on leaving the apaitment, to another ambassador, 
and in the hearing of Duroc, " that it required more real courage 
to encounter with dignity and self-command unbecoming provo- 
cations, which the person who gave them knew could not be re- 
sented, than to brave a death which the mouths of cannon vomit, 
or the points of bayonets inflict." Duroc reported to his master 
what he heard, and, but for Talleyrand's interference, the Swedish 
ambassador would, on the same night, have been lodged in the 
Temple. Orders were already given to that purpose, but were 
revoked. 

This Baron Ehrensward, who is also a general in the service 
of his country, has almost from his youth passed his time at courts ; 
first in his own country, and afterwards in Spain, where he resided 
twelve years as our ambassador. Frank as a soldier, but also po- 
lite as a courtier, he was not a little surprised at the new etiquette 
of our new court, and at the endurance of all the members of the 
diplomatic corps, of whom hardly one had spirit enough to re- 
member that he was the representative of one, at least nominally, 
independent prince or state. It must be added, that he was the 
only foreign diplomatist with Count MarkofF, who was not the 
choice of our cabinet, and therefore was not in our secrets. 

As soon as his Swedish Majesty heard of the unexpected 
and unlawful seizure of the Duke of Enghien, he wrote a letter 
with his own hand to Buonaparte, which he sent by his Adjutant- 
general Tawast ; but this officer arrived too late, and only in time 
to hear of the execution of the pxince he intended to save, and 
the indecent expressions of Napoleone, when acquainted with the 
object of liis mission. Baron Ehrensward was then recalled, and 
a court mourning ordered by Gustavus Adolphus IV, as well as 
by Alexander the First, for the lamented victim of the violated 
laws of nations and humanity. This so enraged our ruler, that 
General Cauiincourt (the same who commanded the expedition 
which crossed the Rhine, and captured the Duke of Enghien) 
was engaged to head and lead fifty other banditti, who Vfsva des- 
tuied to fiass in disguise into Baden, and to briisg the King of Swe- 
den a prisoner to this capital: fortunately, his Majesty had some 
suspicion of the attempt, and removed to a greater distance from 
our frontiers than Carlsruhe. So certain was our government of 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 257 

the success of this shameful enterprise, that our charge d'affairs 
in Sweden was preparing to engage the discontented and disaf- 
fected there for the convocation of a diet, and the establishment 
of a regency. 

According to the report in our diplomatic circle, Buonaparte 
and Talleyrand intended never more to release their royal captive, 
when once in their power ; but, after forcing him to resign the 
throne to his son, keep him a prisoner for the remainder of his 
days, which they would have taken care should not have been 
long. The Duke of Sudermania was to have been nominated a 
regent until the majority of the young king, not yet six years of 
age. The Swedish diets were to recover that influence, or rather 
that licentiousness, to which Gustavus III, by the revolution of the 
19th of August 1772, put an end. All exiled regicides, or traitors, 
were to be recalled, and a revolutionary focus organized in the 
north, equally threatening Russia and Denmark. The dreadful 
consequences of such an event are incalculable. Thanks to the 
prudence of his Swedish Majesty, all these schemes evaporated 
in air. 

Not being able to dethrone a Swedish monarch, our cabinet 
resolved to partition the Swedish territory ; to which effect I am. 
assured that proposals were last summer made to the Cabinets of 
St. Petersburgh, Berlin, and Copenhagen. Swedish Finland was 
stated to have been offered to Russia, Swedish Pomerania to Prus- 
sia, and Scania and Bleking to Denmark ; but the overture was 
rejected. 

The King of Sweden possesses both talents and information, 
superior to most of his contemporaries ; and he has surrounded 
himself with counsellors who, with their experience, make wisdom 
more firm, more useful, and more valuable. His chancellor, d'Eh- 
renheim, unites modesty with sagacity ; he is a most able states- 
man, an accomplished gentleman, and the most agreeable of men. 
He knows the languages, as well as the constitutions, of every 
country in Europe, with equal perfection as his native tongue and 
national code. Had his Sovereign the same ascendency over the 
European politics as Christina had during the ftegotiation of the 
treaty of Munster, other states would admire, and Sweden be 
proud of another Axel Oxe^istierna, 

L L 



258 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Count de Fersen, who also has, and is worthy of the confi- 
dence of his prince, is a nobleman, the honour and pride of his 
rank. A colonel, before the revolution, of the regiment Royal 
Suedois, in the service of my country, his principles were so well 
appreciated, that he was entrusted by Louis XVI and Marie 
Antoinette, when so many were justly suspected, and served 
royalty in distress, at the risk of his own existence. This was so 
much the more generous in him, as he was a foreigner, of one of 
the most ancient families, and one of the richest noblemen in his 
own country. To him Louis XVIII is indebted for his life ; and 
he brought consolation to the deserted Marie Antoinette even in 
the dungeon of the Conciergerie, when a discovery would have 
been a sentence of death. In 1797, he was appointed by his king 
plenipotentiary to the Congress of Radstadt, and arrived there just 
at the time when Buonaparte, after the destruction of happiness 
in Italy, had resolved on the ruin of liberty in Switzerland, and 
came there proud of past exploits, and big with future schemes 
of mischief. His reception from the conqueror of Italy was such 
as might have been expected by distinguished loyalty from suc- 
cessful rebellion. He was told that the Congress of Radstadt was 
not his place ! — and this was true ; for what can be common be- 
tween honour and infamy, between virtue and vice ? On his return 
to Sweden, Count de Fersen was rewarded with the dignity of a 
grand officer of state. 

Of another faithful and trusty counsellor of his Swedish Ma- 
jesty, Baron d'Ai'mfeldt, a panegyric would be pronounced, in 
saying that he was the friend of Gustavus HI. From a page to 
that chevalier of royalty, he was advanced to the rank of general ; 
and during the war with Russia, in 1789 and 1790, he fought and 
bled by the side of his prince and benefactor. It was to him that 
his King said, when wounded moi'tally, by the hand of a regicide, 
at a masquerade, in March 1792, " Don't be alarmed, my friend I 
You know as well as myself, that all wounds are not dangerous." 
Unfortunately his were not of that description. 

In the will of this great monarch, Baron d'Armfeldt was no- 
minated one of the guardians of his present Sovereign, and a 
governor of the capital ; but the Duke Regent, who was a weak 
prince, guided by philosophical adventurers, by illuminati and free- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 259 

masons, maost of whom hacf imbibed the French revokitionary 
maxims, sent him, in a kind of honourable exiles as an ambassador 
to It^ly. Shortly afterwards, under pretence of having discovered 
a conspiracy, in which the Baron was implicated, he was outlawed ; 
he then took refuge in Russia, where he was made a general, and 
as such distinguished himself under Suwarrow, during the cam- 
paign of 1799. He was then recalled to his country, and restored 
to all his former places and dignities, and has never since ceased 
to merit and obtain the favour, friendship, and approbation of his 
King. He is said to be one of the Swedish general officers in- 
tended to serve in union with the Russian troops expected in 
Pomerania. Wherever he is employed, I am convinced that he 
will fight, vanquish, or perish like a hero. Last spring he was 
offered the place of a lieutenant-general in the Austrian service, 
which, with regard to salary and emoluments, is greatly superior 
to what he enjoys in Sweden; he declined it, however; because, 
with a warrior of his stamp, interest is the last consideration. 



LETTER LV. 

Paris, September, 1505. 



MY LORD, 



BELIEVE me, Buonaparte dreads more the liberty of the 
press than all other engines, military or political, used by his 
rivals or foes for his destruction. He is aware of the fatal con- 
sequences all former factions suffered from the public exposure 
of their past crimes and future views ; of the reality of their 
guilt, and of the fallacy of their boasts and promises. He does 
not doubt, but that a faithful account of all the actions and in- 
trigues of his government, its imposition, fraud, duplicity, and 
tyranny, would make a sensible alteration in the public opinion; 
and that even those, who, from motives of patriotism, from being 
tired of our revolutionary convulsions, or wishing for tranquillity, 
have been his adherents, might alter their sentiments, when they 



260 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

read of enormities which must indicate insecurity, and prove t© 
every one, that he w^ho waded through rivers of blood to seize 
power, will never hesitate about the means of preserving it. 

There is not a printing-office, from the banks of the Elbe 
to the gulf of Naples, which is not under the direct or indirect 
inspection of our police agents: and not a bookseller in Ger- 
many, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland or Switzerland, 
publishes a work, which, if contrary to our policy or our fears., 
is not either confiscated or purchased on the day it makes its 
appearance. Besides our regular erriissaries, we have persons 
travelling from the beginning to the end of the year, to pick 
up information of what literary productions are printing ; of 
what authors are popular, of their political opinions and private 
circumstances. This branch of our haute police extends even 
to your countiy. 

Before the revolution, we had in this capital only two daily 
papers, but from 1789 to 1799, never less than thirty, and fre- 
quently sixty journals were daily printed. After Buonaparte 
Lad assumed the Consular authority, they were reduced to ten. 
But though these we}'e under a very sti'ict inspection of our 
minister of police, they were regarded still as too numerous, 
and have lately been diminished to eight, by the incorfioration of 
Le Clef du Cabinet., and Le Bulletin de I* Europe, with Gazette de 
France; a paper of which the infamously famous Barrere is the 
editor. ' According to a proposal of Buonaparte, it was lately 
debated in the council of state, whether it would not be politic 
to suppress all daily prints, with the sole exception of the Moni- 
teur. Fouche and Talleyrand spoke much in favour of this 
measure of security. Real, however, is said to have suggested 
another plan, Avhich was adopted ; and our government, instead 
of prohibiting the appearance of our daily papers, has resolved 
by degrees to purchase them all, and to entrust them entirely 
to the direction of Barrere, who is now consulted in every thing 
concerning books or newspapers. 

All circulation of foreign papers is prohibited, until they 
have previously obtained the stajnp of approbation from the 
grand literary censor, Barrere. Any person offending against 
this law, is most severely punished. An American gentleman, 
of the name of C^unpbeU, was last spring sent to the Temple, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 26\ 

for lending one of your old daily papers to a person who lodged 
in the same hotel with him. After an imprisonment of ten 
weeks, he made some pecuniary sacrifices to obtain his liberty; 
but was carried to Havre, under an escort of gens-d'armes, put 
on board a neutral vessel, and forbade under pain of death, ever 
to set his foot on French ground again. An American vessel 
was, about the same time confiscated at Bourdeaux, and the 
captain and crew imprisoned, because some English books were 
found on board, in which Buonaparte, Talleyrand, Fouche, and 
some of our great men were rather ill treated. The crew has 
since been liberated, but the captain has been brought here, and 
is still in the Temple. The vessel and the cargo have been 
sold as lawful captures, though the captain has proved from the 
names written in the books, that they belonged to a passenger. 
A young German student in surgery, who came here to improve 
himself, has been nine months in the same state prison, for 
having with him a book printed in Germany, during Buonaparte's 
expedition to Egypt, wherein the chief and the undertaking are 
ridiculed. His mother, the widow of a clergyman, hearing of 
the misfortune of her son, came here ; and has presented to the 
emperor and empress half a dozen petitions, without any effect 
whatever, and has almost ruined herself and her other children, 
by the expenses of the journey. During a stay of four months, 
she has not yet been able to gain admittance into the Temple, 
to visit or see her son ; who perhaps expired in tortures, or died 
broken hearted before she came here. 

A dozen copies of a funeral sermon on the duke of Enghien 
had found their way here, and were secretly circulated for some 
time ; but at last the police heard of it, and every person who was 
suspected of having read them was arrested. The number of 
these unfortunate persons, according to some, amounted to one 
hundred and thirty, while others say, that they were only eighty- 
four, of whom twelve died suddenly in the Temple, and the re- 
mainder were transported to Cayenne ; upwards of half of them 
were women, some of the ci-devant highest rank among subjects. 
A Prussian, of the name of Bulow, was shot as a spy in the camp 
of Boulogne, because in his trunk was an English book, with 
the lives of Buonaparte, and of some of his generals Every day, 
such and other examples of thg severity of our government are 



262 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

related ; and foreigners who visit us continue nevertheless to l>e 
off their guard. They would be less punished had they with 
them forged bills, rather than printed books or newspapers in which 
our Imperial Family, and public functionaries, are not treated with 
due respect. Buonaparte is convinced, that in every book where 
he is not spoken of with praise, the intent is to blame him ; and 
such intents or negative guilt, never escape with impunity. 

As, notwithstanding the endeavours of our government, we 
are more fond of foreign prints, and have more confidence in 
them than in our own, official presses have lately been established 
at Antwerp, at Cologne, and at Mentz, where the Gazette de Ley- 
den, Hamburgh Correspondent en, and Journal de Frankfort are 
reprinted, some articles left out, and others inserted in their 
room. It was intended to reprint also the Courier de Londres, 
but our types, and particularly our paper, would detect the fraud. 
I have read one of our own Journal de Frankfort^ in which were 
extracts from this French paper, printed in your country, which 
I strongly suspect are of our own manufactory. I am told that 
several n£w books, written by foreigners, in praise of our present 
brilliant government, are now in the presses of those of our fron- 
tier towns, and will soon be laid before the public as foreign 
productions. 

A clerk of a banking-house had lately the imprudence to 
mention, during his dinner at the restaurateur's of Cadran Vert, 
on the Boulevards, some doubt of the veracity of an official arti- 
cle in the Moniteur. As he left the house he was arrested, car- 
ried before Fouche, accused of being an English agent, and before 
supper-time, he was on the road to Rochefort, on his way to 
Cayenne. As soon as the banker Tournon was informed of this 
exfieditious justice, as it is called here, he waited on Fouche, who 
threatened even to transport him, if he dared to interfere with 
the transactions of the police. This banker was himself seized 
in the spring last year, by a police agent, and some gens- 
d'armes, and carried into exile, forty leagues from this capital, 
where he remained six months, until a pecuniary douceur pro- 
cured him a recal. His crime was the having inquired after 
General Moreau when in the Temple, and of having left his 
card there. 



COURT OF ST, CLOUD. 263 

LETTER LVI. 

Paris J September 1803. 

MY LORD, 

THE Prince of Borghese has lately been appointed a captain 
of the Imperial guard of his Imperial brother-in-law Napoleone 
the First, and is now in Germany, making his first campaign, A 
descendant of a wealthy and ancient Roman family, but born with 
a weak understanding, he was easily deluded into the rank of the 
Revolutionists of his own country, by a Parisian Abbe, his in- 
structor and governor, and the gallant of the Princess Borghese his 
mother. He was the first secretary of the first jacobin club estab- 
lished at Rome, in the spring 1798 ; and in December the same 
year when the Neapolitan troops invaded the Ecclesiastical States, 
he, with his present brother-in-law, another hopeful Roman 
Prince, Santa Cruce, headed the Roman sans-culottes in their 
retreat. To show his love of equality, he had previously served 
as a common-man in a company, of which the captain was a fel- 
low that sold cat's-meat and tripe in the streets of Rome, and the 
lieutenant a scullion of his mother's kitchen. Since Imperial 
aristocracy is now become the order of the day, he is as insup- 
portable for his pride Mid vanity, as he some years ago was con- 
temptible for his meanness. He married, in 1803, Madame Le 
CI ere, who between the death of a first and a wedding with a 
second husband, a space of twelve months, had twice been in a 
fair way to become a mother. Her portion was estimated at 
eighteen millions of livres, 750,000/. a sum sufficient to palliate 
many faux pas, in the eyes of a husband more sensible and more 
delicate than her present Serene Idiot., as she styles the Prince of 
Borghese. 

This lady is the favourite sister of Napoleone, the ablest, but 
also the most wicked of the female Buonapartes. She has, almost 
from her infancy, passed through all the filth of prostitution, de- 
bauchery, and profligacy, before she attained her present eleva- 
tion ; rank, however, has not altered her morals, but only procured 
her the means of indulging in new excesses. Ever since the wed- 



^64 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

ding night, the Prince of Borghese has been excluded from her 
bed ; for she declared frankly to him, as well as to her brother, 
that she would never endure the approach of a man with a bad / 
breath ; though many, who, from the opportunities they have had 
of judging, certainly ought to know, pretend that her own breath 
is not the sweetest in the world. When her husband had marched 
towards the Rhine, she asked her brother, as a favour, to procure 
the Prince of Borghese, after an useless life, a glorious death. 
This curious demand of a wife was made in Madame Buona- 
parte's drawing-room, in the presence of fifty persons. " You 
are always etourdie" replied Napoleone, smiling. 

If Buonaparte, however, overlooks the intrigues of his sisr 
ters, he is not so easily pacified, when any reports reach him, 
inculpating the virtues of his sisters-in-law.' Some gallants of 
Madame Joseph Buonaparte, have already disappeared to return 
no more, or are wandering in the wilds of Cayenne : but the Em- 
peror is particularly attentive to every thing concerning the mo- 
rality oi'Mdid-eume, Louis, whose descendants are destined to continue 
the Buonaparte dynasty. Two officers, after being cashiered, 
were, with two of Madame Louis's maids, shut up last month in 
the Temple, and have not since been heard of, upon suspicion 
that the Princess preferred their society to that of her husband. 

Louis Buonaparte, whose constitution has been much im- 
paired by his debaucheries, was last July advised by his physicians 
to use the baths at St. Amand. After his wife had accompanied 
him as far as Lille, she went to visit one of her friends, Madame 
Ney, the wife of General Ney, who commanded the camp near 
Montreuil. This lady resided in a castle called Leek, in the 
vicinity, where dinners, concerts, balls, and other festivities, 
celebrated the arrival of the Princess ; and to these the principal 
officers of the camp were invited. One morning, about an hour 
after the company had retired to bed, the whole castle was dis- 
turbed and alarmed by an uproar in the anti-room of Princess 
Louis's bed-chamber : on coming to the scene of riot, two officers 
were found there fighting, and the Princess Louis more than half 
undressed, came out and called the sentries on duty to separate 
the combatants, who were both wounded. This affair occasioned 
great scandal ; and General Ney, after having put the officers 
under arrest, sent a courier to Napoleone at Boulogne, relating 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 265 

the particulars, and demanding his Majesty's orders. It was 
related and believed as a fact, that the quarrel originated about two 
of the maids of the Princess (whose virtue was never suspected) 
with whom the officers were intriguing. The Emperor ordered 
the culprits to be broken, and delivered up to his minister of po- 
lice, who knew how to proceed. The Princess Louis also 
received an invitation to join her sister-in-law Madame Murat, 
then in the camp at Boulogne, and to remain under her care until 
her husband's return from St. Amand. 

General Murat was then at Paris, and his lady was merely 
on a visit to her Imperial brother, who made her responsible for 
Madame Louis, whom he severely I'eprimanded for the miscon- 
duct of her maids. The bed-rooms of the two sisters were on the 
same floor; one night' Princess Louis thought she heard the foot- 
steps of a person on the staircase, not like those of a female, and 
aftei'wards the door of Madame Murat's room opened softly. This 
occurrence deprived her of all desire to sleep ; and curiosity or 
perhaps revenge excited her to remove her doubts concerning the 
virtue of her guardian. In about an hour afterwai'ds, she stole 
into Madame Murat's bed-i'oom, by the way of their sitting room, 
the door in the passage bemg bolted. Passing her hand over th& 
pillow, she almost pricked herself with the strong beard of a man, 
and screaming out, awoke her sister, who inquired what she 
could want at such an unusual hour. " I believe," replied the 
Princess, " my room is haunted, I have not shut my eyes, and m- 
tended to ask for a place by your side, but I find it is already 
engaged." " My maid always sleeps with me, when my husband 
is absent," said Madame Murat. " It is very rude of your maid 
to go to bed with her mistress, without first shaving herself," said 
the Piincessj and left the room. The next morning an explanation 
took place ; the ladies understood each other, and each, during 
the remaining part of her husband's absence, had for consolation, 
a maid for a bed fellow. — Madame Murat also convinced the Em- 
peror that his suspicions with regard to the Princess Louis were 
totally unfounded ; and he, with some precious presents, indemni- 
fied her for his harsh treatment. 

It is reported, that the two maids of the Princess Louis, when 
before Fouche, first denied all acquaintance with the officers ; but 
being threatened with torture^ they- signed a /irocesa verbal ac" 

M M 



266 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

knowledging their guilt. This valuable and authentic documeaot 
the minister sent by an extra courier to the Emperor, who shewed 
it to his step-daughter. Her generosity is proverbial here, aiid 
therefoi'e nobody is sui'prised that she has given a handsome sum. 
of money to the parents of her maids, who had in vain applied to 
see their children ; Fouche having told them affairs of state still 
required their confinement. One of them, Mariothe, has been in 
the service of the Princess ever since her marriage, and is known 
to possess all her confidence ; though during that period of four 
years she has twice been in a state of pregnancy, through the con- 
descending attentions of her princely master. 



LETTER LVn. 

Paris, September 1805. 



MY LORD, 



WHEN preparations were made for the departure of our 
army of England for Germany, it excited both laughter and mur- 
muring among the troops. Those who always had regarded the 
conquest of England as impracticable in present circumstances, 
laughed ; and those who had in their imagination shared the 
wealth of your country, shewed themselves vexed at their disap- 
pointment. To keep them in good spirits, the company of the 
theatre of the Vaiidevilles wei'e ordered from hence to Boulogne, 
and several plays composed for the occasion were performed, in 
which the Germans were represented as defeated, and the Eng- 
lish begging for peace on their knees, which the Emperor of the 
French grants, upon condition that one hundred guineas, ready 
money, should be paid to each of his soldiers and sailors. Every 
corps in its turn was admitted gratis, to witness this exhibition of 
the end of all their labours ; and you can fo^hn no idea what effect 
it produced, tliough you are not a stranger to our fickle and incon- 
siderate character. Ballads, with the same predictions, and the 
same promises, were written, and distributed among the soldiers, 
and sung by M'omen sent by Fouche to the coast. As all produc • 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 267 

tions of this sort were, as usual, liberally rewarded by the Empe- 
ror, they poured in from all parts of his Empire. 

Three poets and authors for the theatre of the Vaudevilles, 
Barre, Radet, and Desfontaines, received each two hundred Na- 
poleone's d'or, for their common production of a ballad, called 
" Les Adieux d'un Grenadier au Camp, de Boulogne /* from this, 
I have extracted the following sample, by which you may judge 
of the remainder : 

. Le tambour bat ; il faut partir : 

Ailleurs on nous appelle ; 
Et de lauriers, il va s'offiir 

Une moisson nouvelle. 
Si la-bas ils sont assez fous 

Pour troubler I'AIlemagne, 
Tant pis pour eux, tant mieux pour nous j 

Allons : vite en campagne ! 

La par ses exploits eclataijs 

On connoit notre armee ; 
C'est la qu'elle est depuis long-temps 

A vaincre accoutumfee ; 
C'est la que nos braves guerriers 

Vont triompher d'embl6e ; 
C'est le pays ou les lauriers 

Sont en coupe reglee. 

Adieu, mon cher petit jardin, 

Ma cabane jolie, 
•« Toi que j'ai plante de ma main, 

Et toi que j'ai batie ! 
Puisqu'il faut prendre mon mousquetj 

Et quitter ma chaumiere, 
Je m'en vais planter le piquet 

Par de-la la frontiere. 

Adieu, poules, pigeons, lapins, 
Et ma chatte gentille, 



268 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Autour de moi toiis les matins 

Rassembles en famille ! 
Toi, mon chien, ne me quitte pas ! 

Compagnon de ma gloire^ 
Tu dois toujours suivre mes pas : 

Ton nom est la Vict aire. 

Sans adieu, peniches, bateaux. 

Frames et cannonieres, 
Qui dtrviez porter sur les eaux 

Nos braves militaires ! 
Vous, ne soyez pas si contens. 

Messieurs de la Tamise : 
Seulement pour quelquea instan* 

La partie est remise I 



THE GRENADIER'S ADIEU 

TO THE CAMP AT BOULOGNE. 

The drum is beating, we must march, 

We're summon'd to another field, 
A field^that to our conqu'ring swords 

Shall soon a laurel harvest yield. 
If English folly light tlie torch 

Of war in Germany again, — 
The loss is theirs, — ^the gain is ours, — 

March ! march ! commence the bright campaign. 

There, only by their glorious deeds 

Our chiefs and gallant bands are known ; 

There, often have they met their foes, 
And victory was all their own :— 

There, hostile ranks, at our approach, 
Prostrate beneath ouv feet shall bow ; 



II 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 269 

There, smiling conquest waits to twine 
A laurel wreath round every brow. 

Adieu, my pretty turf-built * hut ! 

Adieu, my little * garden too ! 
I made, I deck'd you all myself, 

And I am loth to part with you : 
But since my arms I must resume, 

And leave your comforts all behind, 
Upon the hostile frontier soon 

My tent shall flutter in the wind. 

My pretty fowls and doves adieu ! 

Adieu, my playful cat to thee ! 
Who every morning round me came, 

And form'd my little family. 
But thee, my dog, I shall not leave,— 

No, thou shalt ever follow me, 
Shalt share my toils, shalt share my fame, — 

For thou art called Victory. 

Biit no farewel I bid to you, 

Ye praams, and boats, who, o'er the wave, 
Were doom'd to waft to England's shore 

Our hero chiefs, our soldiers brave. 
To you, good gentlemen of Thames, 

Soon, soon our visit shall be paid, 
Soon, soon your merriment be o'er,— 

'Tis but a few short hours delay'd. 

As I am writing on the subject oi poetical agents, I will also 
say some words of our poetical flatterers, though the same persons 



* During the long continuance of the French encampment at Bou- 
logne, the troops had forined, as it were, a romantic town of huts. Every 
hut had a garden surrounding it, kept in excellent order and stocked with 
vegetables and. flowers. They had besides, fowls, pigeons, and rabbits ; and 
these, whh a cat and a dog, generally formed the little household of every 
soldier. 



270 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

frequently occupy both the one office and the other. A man of 
the name of Richaud, who sang formerly the glory of Marat and 
Robespierre, offered to Buonaparte, on the evening preceding 
his departure for Strasburgh, the following lines ; and was in re- 
turn presented with a purse full of gold, and an order to the mi- 
nister of the interior, Champagny, to be employed iu his offices, 
until better provided for. 

STANCES, 

, SUR LES BRUITS PE GUERRE AVEC l'aUTRICHE. 

Rois tant de fois vaincus ! O Rois dont I'imprudence 

Menace encore votre vainqueur, 
Fixez en ce moment vos regards sur la France, 

Et perdez tout espoir en voyant sa sfilendeur. 

Quel orgueil deplorable, insenses que vous etes, 

Pent done encore vous abuser ? 
Tremblez, si votre voix invoque les tempetes 

La foudre va partir ; mais pour vous ecraser. 

Et toi, Napoleon, s'il faut a la victoire 

Ramener ce peuple guerrier, 
Vas, I'Eux'ope est temoin qu'au laurier de la gloii'e 

Ton caur eut p.refere le modeste olivier, 

Mais du soldat Fran^ais la valeur irrit6e 

T'appelle a de nouveaux exploits, 
Dis un mot, un seul mot, et Vienne epouvantee 

Vas revoir nos drapeaux.... /Jowr la demierefois. 



STANZAS, 

ON THE RUMOUR OF A WAR WITH AUSTRIA. 

Kings, who so often vanquish'd, vainly dare 
Menace the victor that has laid you low,— 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 271 

Look now at France, — and view your own despair 
In the majestic splendor of your foe. 

What miserable pride, ye foolish kings, 
Still your deluded reason thus misleads ? 

Provoke the storm, — the bolt vsdth light'ning wings 
Shall fall,— .but fall on your devoted heads. 

And thou, Napoleon, if thy mighty sword 
Shall for thy people conquer new renown ; 

Go, — ^Europe shall attest, thy heart preferr'd 
The modest olive to the laurel crown. 

But thee, lov'd chief, to new achievements bold 
The aroused spirit of the soldier calls ; 

Speak ! — and Vienna cowering shall behold 
Our banners waving o'er her prostrate walls. 

I received four days afterwards, at the circle of Madame Jo- 
seph Buonaparte, with all other visitors, a copy of these stanzas ; 
most of the foreign ambassadors were of the party, and had also 
a share of this patriotic donation. Count de Cobentzel had pru- 
dently absented himself; otherwise this delenda of the Austrian 
Carthage would have been officially announced to him. 

Another poetaster, of the name of Brouet, in a long, dull, dis- 
gusting poem, after comparing Buonaparte with all great men of 
antiquity, and p.roving that he surpasses them all ; tells his coun- 
trymen that their Emperor is the deputy divinity upon earth, the 
mirror of wisdom, a demigod, to whom future ages will erect sta- 
tues, build temples, burn incense, fall down and adore : a propor- 
tionate share of abuse is, of course, bestowed on your nation. He 
says, 

A Londres on vit briller d'un eclat ephem^re 
Le front tout radieux d'un ministre influent ; 

Mais pour faire palir Tetoile d'Angleterre, 
Un SoLEiL tout nouveau parut au firmament j 
Et ce soieil du peuple franc, 
Admire de I'Europe entiere, 

Sur la terre est nomme Bonaparte le Grand. 



272 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

For this delicate compliment Brouet was made deputy p>ostmas- 
ter-general in Italy, and a kni.^ht of the Legion of Honour. It 
must be granted, that if Buonaparte is fond of flattery, he does 
not receive it gratis, but pays for it like a real Emperor. 

It has lately become the etiquette, not only in our court 
circle, and official assemblies, but even in fashionable societies of 
persons M^ho are or w^ish to become Buonaparte's public function- 
aries, to distribute and have read and applauded these disinterested 
effusions of our"'poetical genuises. This fashion occasioned lately 
a curious blunder at a tea party, in the hotel of Madame Talley- 
rand. The same printer who had been engaged by this lady had 
also been employed by Chenier, or some other poet, to print a 
short satire against several of our literary ladies, in which Madame 
de Genlis, and Madame de Stael, who has just arrived here from 
her exile, were with others very severely handled. By mistake, 
a bundle of this production was given to the porter of Madame 
Talleyrand, and a copy was handed to each visitor, even to Ma- 
dame de Genlis, and Madame de Stael, who took them without 
noticing their contents. Picard, after reading an act of a new play, 
was asked by the lady of the house to read this poetic worship of 
the Emperor of the French. After the two first lines he stopped 
short, looking round him confused, suspecting a trick had been 
played upon him. This induced the audience to read what had 
been given them, and Madame Talleyrand with the rest ; who, 
instead of permitting Picard to continue with another scene of his 
play, as he had adroitly began, made the most awkward apology 
in the world, and by it still more exposed the ladies who were the 
objects of the satire ; which, in an hour afterwards was exchang- 
ed for the verses intended for the homage of the Emperor, and 
the cause of the error was cleared up. 

I have read somewhere of a tyrant of antiquity, who forced 
all his subjects to furnish one room of their houses in the best 
possible manner according to their circumstances, and to have it 
consecrated for the reception of his bust, before which, under pain 
of death, they were commanded to prostrate themselves, morning 
noon and night. They Avere to enter this room bare-headed and 
bare-footed, to remain there only on their knees, and tp leave it 
without turning their back towards the sacred representative of 
tlieir prince. All laughing, sneezing, coughing, speaking, or even^ 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 273 

whispering, were capitally prohibited ; but crying was not only 
permitted, but commanded, when his majesty was offended, angry, 
or unwell. Should our system of cringing continue progressively 
to increase, as it has done these last three years, we too shall very 
soon have rooms consecrated, and an idol to adore. 



LETTER LVIII. 

FariS) Septeinber 1805. 



MY LORD, 



PORTUGAL has suffered more from the degraded state of 
Spain, under the administration of the Prince of Peace, than we 
have yet gained by it in France. Engaged by her, in 1793, in a 
war against its inclination and interest, it was not only deserted 
afterwards, but sacrificed. But for the dictates of the Court of 
Madrid, supported perhaps by some secret influence of the Court 
of St. James,' the Court of Lisbon would have preserved its neu- 
trality, and, though not a well-wisher of the French Republic, never 
have been counted among her avowed enemies. 

In the peace of 1795, and in the subsequent treaty of 1796, 
which transformed the family compact of the French and Spanish 
Bourbons into a national alliance between France and Spain, 
there was no question about Portugal. In 1797, indeed, our go- 
vernment condescended to receive a Portuguese plenipotentiary, 
but merely for the purpose of plundering his country of some 
millions of money, and to insult it by shutting up its representa- 
tive as a state prisoner in the Temple. Of this violation of the 
laws of civilized nations Spain never complained, nor had Portu- 
gal any means to avenge it. After four years of negotiation, and 
an expenditure -of thirty millions, the imbecile Spanish premier 
supported demands made by our government, which, if assented 
to, would have left their Most Faithful Majesty without any ter- 
ritory in Europe, and without any place of refuge in America. 
Circumstances not permitting your country to send any but pecu- 

' N N 



274 SECR3ET HISTORY OF THE 

•niary succours, Portugal would have become an easy prey to the 
united Spanish and French forces, had the marauders agreed 
about the partition of the spoil. Their disunion, the consequence - 
of their avidity, saved it from ruin, but not from pillage. A pro- 
vince was ceded to Spain ; the banks and the navigation of a river 
to France ; and fifty millions to the private purse of the Buona- 
parte family. 

It might have been supposed that such renunciations, and 
such offerings, would have satiated ambition, as well as cupidity ; 
but though the Cabinet of Lisbon was in peace with the Cabinet 
of St. Cloud, the pretensions and enci'oachments of the latter left 
the former no rest. While pocketing tributes, it required com- 
mercial monopolies, and when its commerce was favoured, it de- 
manded sea-ports to ensure the security of its trade. Its preten- 
sions rose in proportion to the condescensions of the state it op- 
pressed. With the money and the value of the diamonds, which 
Portugal has paid in loans, in contributions, in requisitions, in do- 
nations, in tributes, and in presents, it might have supported during 
ten yeai's an army of one hundred thousand men: and could it then 
have been worse situated than it has been since, and is still at this 
moment ? 

But the manner of extorting, and the individuals employed to 
extort, were more humiliating to its dignity and independence than 
the extortions themselves were injuriousto its I'esources. The first 
revolutionary ambassador Buonaparte sent thither evinced both 
his ingratitude and his contempt. 

Few of oiw many upstart generals have more illiberal senti- 
ments, and more vulgar and insolent manners, than General Las- 
nes. The son of a publican and a smuggler, he was a smuggler 
himself in his youth, and afterwards a postilion, a dragoon, a de- 
serter, a coiner, a jacobin, and a terrorist; and he has, with the 
meanness and brutality of these different trades^ a kind of native 
impertinence and audacity which shocks and disgusts. He seems 
to say, I am a villain ; I know that I am so ; and I am proud of 
being so. To obtain the rank I possess, I have respected no 
human laws, and I bid defiance to all divine vengeance. I might 
be murdered or hanged, but it is impossible to degrade me. On a 
gibbet, or in the palace of a prhice, — seized by the executioner, or 
dinmg with sovereigns, I am, I will, and I must always remain 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 275 

the same. Infamy cannot debase me, nor is it in the power of gran- 
deur to exalt me. General, ambassador, field-marshal, first consul, 
or emperor, Lasnes will always be the same polluted but daring 
individual ; a stranger to remorse and repentance, as well as to 
honour and virtue. Where Buonaparte sends a bandit of such a 
stamp, he has resolved on destruction. 

A kind of temporary disgrace was said to have occasioned 
Lasnes's first mission to Portugal. When commander of the con- 
sular guard, in 1802, he had appropriated to himself a sum of 
money from the regimental chest, and, as a punishment, was 
exiled as an ambassador^ as he said himself. His resentment 
against Buonaparte he took care to pour out on the Regent of 
Portugal. Without inquiring or caring about the etiquette of the 
Court of the Thuilleries with him, and determined to fraternize 
with a foi'eign and legitimate Sovereign, as he had done with his 
own sans-culotte fi'iend and First Consul ; and, what is the most 
surprising, he carried his point. The Prince Regent not only ad- 
mitted him to the royal table, but stood sponsor to his child by a 
wife, who had been two years his mistress, before he was divorced 
from his first spouse, and with whom the Prince's consort, a 
Bourbon Princess, and a daughter of a King, was also obliged to 
associate. 

Avaricious as well as unprincipled, he pursued, as an ambas- 
sador, his former business of a smuggler, and instead of being 
ashamed of a discovery, proclaimed it publicly, deserted his post, 
was not reprimanded in France, but was, without apology, received 
back again in Portugal. His conduct afterwards could not be sur- 
prising. He only insisted that some faithful and able ministers 
should be removed, and others appointed in their place, more 
complaisant, and less honest. 

New plans of Buonaparte, however, delivered Portugal from 
this plague ; but what did it obtain in return ? another grenadier 
ambassador, less brutal, but more cunning; as abandoned, but 
more dissimulating. 

General Junot is the son of a corn-chandler, near the corn- 
market of this capital, and was a shopman to his father in 1789. 
Having committed some pilfering, he was turned out of the pa- 
rental dwelling, and therefore lodged himself as an inmate of the 
Jacobin Club. In 1792 he entered as a soldier in a regiment of 



276 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

the army iiaarching against the county of Nice; and in 1793 he 
served before Toulon, where he became acquainted with Buona- 
parte, whom he, in January 1794, assisted in dispatching the un- 
fortunate Toulonese ; and with whom also, in the autumn of the 
same year, he therefore was arrested as a terrorist. 

In 1796, when commander in chief, Buonaparte made Junot 
his aide-de-camp ; and in that capacity he accompanied him, in 
1798, to Egypt. There,^as well as in Italy, he fought bravely, 
but had no particular opportunity of distinguishing himself. He 
was not one of those select few, whom Napoleone brought with 
him to Europe, in 1799, but returned first to France in 1801, 
when he was nominated a general of division, and commander of 
this capital ; a place he resigned last year to General Murat. 

His despotic and cruel behaviour, while commander of Paris, 
made him not much regretted. Fouche lost in him, indeed, an 
able support, but none of us here ever experienced from him 
justice, much less protection. As with all other of our modem 
public functionaries, without money nothing was obtained from 
him. It required as much for not doing any harm, as if, in re- 
nouncing his usual vexatious oppressions, he had conferred bene- 
fits. He was much suspected of being, with Fouche, the patron of 
a gang of street-robbers and house-breakers, who, in the winter of 
1803, infested this capital, and who, when finally discovered, were 
screened from justice, and suffered to escape punishment. 

I will tell you what I personally have seen of him. Happen- 
ing one evening to enter the I'ooms at Frescati, where the 
gambling tables are kept, I observed him undressed, out of I'egi- 
mentals, in company with a yoting man, who afterwards avowed 
himself an aide-de-camp of this general, and who was playing 
with rouleaux of Louis d'ors, supposed to contain fifty each, at 
Rouge et Koir. As long as he lost any, which he did several, he 
took up the rouleaux on the table, and gave another from his 
pocket. At last he won, when he asked the bankers to look at 
their loss, and count the money in his rouleau before they peud 
him. On opening it, they found it contained one hundred bank 
notes, of one hundred thousand livres each, 4500/. folded in a man- 
ner to resemble the form and size of Louis d'ors. The bankers 
refused to pay, and applied to the company, whether they were 
not in the right to do so, after so many rouleaux had been chartged 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 277 

by the person who now I'equired such an unusual sum in such an 
unusual manner.. Before any answer could be given, Junot in- 
terfered, asking the bankers whether they knew who he was ? 
upon their answering in the negative, he said, " I am General 
Junot, the commander of Paris ; and this officer who has Avon the 
money is my aide-de-camp, and I insist upon your paying him 
this instant, if you do not wish to have your bank confiscated, and 
your persons arrested." They refused to part with money which 
they protested was not their own ; and most of the individuals 
present joined them in their resistance. " You aix altogether a set 
of scoundrels and sharpers, interrupted Junot; your business 
shall soon be done." So saying he seized all the money on the 
table ; and a kind of boxing-match ensued between him and the 
bankers, in which he, being a tall and strong man, got the better 
of them. The tumult, however, brought in the guard, whom he 
ordered, as their chief, to carry to prison sixteen persons he point- 
ed out ; fortunately I was not of the number ; I say fortunately, 
for I have heard that most of them remained imprisoned six 
months, before this delicate affair was cleared vip and settled. In 
the mean time, Junot not only pocketed all the money he pretend- 
ed was due to his aide-de-camp, but the whole sum contained in 
the bank, which was double the amount. It was believed, by every 
one present, that this was an affair arranged between him and his 
aide-de-camp before-hand, to pillage the bank. What a com- 
mander, what a general, and what an ambassador ! 

Fitte, the secretary of our embassy to Portugal, was former- 
ly an abbe, and must be well remembered in your country, where 
he passed some years as an emigrant, but was in fact a spy of Tal- 
leyrand. I am told, that by his intrigues, he even succeeded to 
swindle your ministers out of a sum of money^ by some plausible 
schemes he proposed to them. He is, as well as all other apostate 
priests, a very dangerous man, and an immoral and unprincipled 
wretch. During the time of Robespierre, he is said to have 
caused the murder of his elder brother and younger sister ; the 
former he denounced, to appropriate to himself his wealth ; and 
the latter he accused of fanaticism, because she refused to cohabit 
with him. He daily boasts of the great protection and great 
friendship of Talleyrand. Qualis rex, talis, gr ex. 



278 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 



LETTER LIX. 

Paris f September 1805. 



MY LORD, 



IN some of the ancient republics, all citizens, who, in time 
of danger and trouble, remained neutral, were punished as traitors, 
or treated as enemies. When, by our Revolution, civilized so- 
ciety and the European commonwealth were menaced with a total 
overthrow, had each member of it been considered in the same 
light, and subjected to the same laws, some individual states might 
perhaps have been less wealthy, but the whole community would 
have been more happy and more tranquil, which would have been 
much better. It was a great error in the powerful league of 1793 
to admit any neutrality at all; every government that did not 
combat rebellion should have been considered and treated as its 
ally. The man who continues neutrals, though only a passenger, 
when hands are wanted to preserve the vessel from sinking, de- 
serves to be thrown overboard, to be swallowed up by the waves, 
and to perish the first. Had all other nations been united and 
unanimous, during 1793 and 1794, against the monster Jaco- 
binism, we should not have heard of either jacobin Directors, 
jacobin Consuls, or a jacobin Emperor. But then, from a petty 
regard to a temporary profit, they entered into a truce with a re- 
volutionary volcano, which, sooner or later, will consume them all ; 
for I am afraid that it is now too late for all human power, with 
all human means, to preserve any state, any government, or any 
people, from suffering by the threatening conflagration. Switzer- 
land, Venice, Geneva, Genoa, and Tuscany, have already gather- 
ed the poisoned fruits of their neutrality. Let but Buonaparte 
establish himself undisturbed in Hanover some years longer, and 
you will see the neutral Hanse Towns, neutral Prussia, and neutral 
Denmark, visited with all the evils of invasion, pillage, and destruc- 
tion, and the independence of the nations in the north will be 
buried in the rubbish of the liberties of the people of the south 
of Europe, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 279 

These ideas have frequently occurred to me, on hearing our 
agents pronounce, i>nd their dupes repeat, * Oh ! the wise govern- 
ment of Denmark ! Oh what a wise statesman the Danish minis- 
ter. Count Bernstorf is 1' I do not deny that the late Count Bem- 
storf was a great politician ; but I assert also that his was a great- 
ness more calculated for regular times than for periods of unusual 
political convulsion ; like your Pitt, the Russian Woronzow, and 
the Austrian Colloredo, he was too honest to judge soundly and to 
act rightly, according to the present situation of affairs; he adhered 
too much to the old routine, and did not perceive the immense 
difference between the government of a revolutionary ruler and 
the govemnnent of a Louis XIII, or a Louis XIV. — I am certain, 
had he still been alive, he would have repented of his errors, and 
ti'ied to have repaired tliem. 

His son, the present Danish minister, follows his fathei'^s 
plans, and adheres, in 1805, to a system laid down by him in 1795.; 
while the alterations that have occurred within these ten years 
have more aflPected the real and relative power aud weakness of 
states, than all the revolutions which have been produced by the 
insurrections, wars, and pacifications of the two preceding cen- 
turies. He has even gone farther, in some parts of his admini- 
stration, than his father ever intended. Without remembering 
the political truth, that a weak state which courts the alliance 
of a powerful neighbour always becomes a vassal while desiring 
to become an ally, he has attempted to exchange the connexions 
of Denmark and Russia, for new ones with Prussia ; and forgot- 
ten the obligations of the Cabinet of Copenhagen to the Cabinet 
of St. Petersburgh, and the interested policy of the House of Bran- 
denburgh. That, on the contrary, Russia has always been a gene- 
rous ally of Denmark, the flourishing state of the Danish domini- 
ons, since the beginning of the last century, evinces. Its distance 
and geographical position prevent all encroachments from being 
feared or attempted, while at the same time it affords protection 
equally against the rivalry of Sweden and the ambition of Prussia. 

The Prince Royal of Denmark is patriotic as well as en- 
lightened, and would rule. with more true policy and lustre, were 
he to follow seldomer the advice of his counsellors, and oftener 
the dictates of his own mind. Count de Schimmelman, Count de 
Reventlow,and Count Bernstorf, are all good and moral characters, 



280 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

but I fear that their united capacity taken together will not fill up 
the vacancy left in the Danish Cabinet by the death of its late 
pi'ime minister. I have been personally acquainted with them 
all three, but I draw my conclusions from the acts of their admi- 
nistration, not from my own knowledge. Had the late Count 
Bernstorf held the ministerial helm in 1803, a paragraph in the 
Moniteur would never have disbanded a Danish army in Holstein ; 
nor would, in 1805, intriguers have been endured, who preached 
neutrality, after witnessing repeated violations of the law of nations, 
not on the remote banks of the Rhine, but on the Danish frontiers, 
on the Danish territory, on the banks of the Elbe. 

It certainly was no compliment to his Danish Majesty, when 
our government sent Grouvelle as a representative to Copen- 
hagen ; a man who owed his education and information to the 
Conde branch of the Bourbons, and who afterwards audaciously 
and sacrilegiously read the sentence of death on the chief of that 
family, on his good and legitimate King, Louis XVI. It can nei- 
ther be called dignity nor prudence in the Cabinet of Denmark, 
to suffer this regicide to serve as a point of rally to sedition and 
innovation ; to be the official propagator of revolutionary doctrines, 
and an official protector of all proselytes and sectaries of this anti- 
social faith. 

Before the Revolution, a secretary to the prince of Conde, 
Grouvelle was trusted and rewarded by his Serene Highness, and 
in return betrayed his confidence ; and repaid benefactions and 
generosity witli calumny and persecution, when his patron was 
obliged to seek safety in emigration, against the assassins of suc- 
cessful rebellion. JlVhen the national seals were put on the es- 
tates of the Prince,Tie appropriated to himself, not only the whole 
of his Highness's library, but a part of his plate. Even the ward- 
robe, and the cellar, were laid under contributions by this do- 
mestic marauder. 

With natural genius, and acquired experience, Grouvelle 
unites impudence and immorality ; and those on whom he fixes 
for his prey are therefore easily duped, and irremediably undone. 
He has furnished disciples to all factions, and to all sects ; — assas- 
sins to the revolutionary tribunals, as well as victims for the revo- 
lutionary guillotine ; sans-culottes to Robespierre, Septembrizers 
to Marat, republicans to the Directory ; spies to Talleyrand, and 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 281 

slaves to Buonaparte, who, in 1 800, nominated him a tribune, but 
in 1 804 disgraced him, because he wished that the Duke of En- 
ghien had rather been secretly poisoned in Baden than publicly 
condemned, and privately executed in France. 

Our present minister at the Court of Copenhagen, Dagues- 
seau, has no virtues to boast of, but also no crimes to blush for. 
With inferior capacity, he is only considered by Talleyrand as an 
inferior intriguer, employed in a country ruled by an inferior po- 
licy, neither feared nor esteemed by our government. His secre- 
tary, Desaugiers the elder, is our real and confidential firebrand 
in the north, commissioned to keep burning those materials of 
combustion, which Grouvelle and others of our incendiaries have 
lighted and illuminated in Holstein, Denmark, Sweden, and 
Norway. 



LETTER LX. 

Paris, October 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THE insatiable avarice of all the members of the Buona- 
parte family has already and frequently been mentioned ; some 
of our philosofihers, however, pretend, that ambition and vanity ex- 
clude from the mind of Napoleone Buonaparte the passion of 
covetousness ; that he pillages only to get money to pay his mili- 
tary plunderers, and hoards treasures only to purchase slaves, or to 
recompense the associates and instruments of his authority. 

Whether their assertions be just or not, I will not take upoii 
myself to decide ; but, to judge from the Imperial and Royal pa- 
laces, from the great augmentation of the Imperial and Royal do- 
raiains; from the immense and valuable quantity of diamonds, 
jewels, pictures, statues, libraries, museums, &c. disinterestedness 
and self-denial are certainly not among Napoleone's virtues. 

In France, he not only disposes of all the former palaces and 
extensive demesnes of our King, but has greatly increased them, 

O o 



^2 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

by national property and by lands and estates bought by the Impe- 
rial treasury, or confiscated by Imperial decrees. In Italy, he has, 
by an official act, declared to be the property of his crown, Firet, 
the royal palace at Milan, and a royal villa, which he now calls 
Villa Buonaparte ; Second, the palace of Monza and its dependen- 
cies ; Third, the palace of Mantua, the palace of The, and the ci- 
devant ducal palace of Modena ; Fourth, a palace situated in the 
vicinity of Brescia, and another palace in the vicinity of Bologna j 
Fifth, the ci-devant ducal palaces of Parma and Placenza ; Sixth, 
the beautiful forest of Tesin. Ten millions were, besides, ordered 
to be drawn out of the royal treasury at Milan, to purchase lands 
for the formation of a park, pleasure-grounds, Sec. 

To these are added all the royal palaces and domains of the 
former kings of Sardinia, of the Dukes of Brabant, of the Counts 
of Flanders, of the German Electors, Princes, Dukes, Counts, 
Barons, &c. who, before the last war, were Sovereigns on the 
right tank of the Rhine. I have seen a list, according to which 
the number of palaces and chateaux appertaining to Napoleone, as 
Emperor and King, are stated to be seventy -nine ; so that he may 
change his habitations six times in the month, without occupying 
during the same year the same palace, and nevertheless ahvays 
sleeji at home. 

In this number are not included the private chateaux and es- 
tates of the Empress, or those of the Princes and Princesses 
Buonaparte. Madame Napoleone has purchased, since her hus- 
band's consulate, in her own name, or in the name of her children, 
nine estates with their chateaux, four national forests, and six 
hotels at Paris. Joseph Buonaparte possesses four estates and 
chateaux in France, three hotels at Paris and at Brussels, three 
chateaux and estates in Italy, and one hotel at Milan, and another 
at Turin. Lucien Buonaparte has now remaining only one hotel 
at Paris, another at Bonne, and a third at Chamberry. He has one 
estate in Burgundy, two in Languedoc, and one in the vicinity of 
this capital. At Bologna, Ferraira, Florence, and Rome, he has his 
own hotels, and in the Papal States he has obtained, in exchange 
for property in France, three chateaux with their dependencies. 
Louis Buonaparte has three hotels at Paris, one at Cologne, one at 
Strasburgh, and one at Lyons. He has two estates in Flanders, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. !^8^ 

three in Burgundy, one in Franche Comte^ and another in Alsace. 
He has also a chateau four leagues from this city. At Genoa he 
has a beautiful hotel, and upon the Genoese tenitory a large 
estate. He has bought three plantations at Martinico, and two at 
Guadaloupe. To Jerome Buonaparte has hitherto been present- 
ed only an estate in Brabant, and an hotel in this capital. Some of 
the former domains of the House of Orange, in the Batavian Re- 
public, have been purchased by the agents of our governmenl;, and 
are said to be intended for him. 

But while Napoleone Buonaparte has thus heaped wealth on 
his wife and his brothers, his mother and sisters have not been 
neglected or left unprovided for. Madame Buonaparte his mother 
has one hotel at Paris, one at Turin, one at Milan, and one at 
Rome. Her estates in France are four, and in Italy two. Ma- 
dame Bachiocchi, Princess of Piombino and Lucca, possesses 
two hotels in this capital, and one palace at Piombino, and another 
at Lucca. Of her estates in France, she has only retained two, 
but she has three in the kingdom of Italy, and four in her 
husband's and her own dominions. The Princess Santa Cruce 
possesses one hotel at Rome, and four chateaux in the papal ter- 
ritory. At Milan, she has, as well as at Turin and at Paris, hotels 
given her by her Imperial brother, together with two estates in 
France, one in Piedmont, and two in Lombardy. The Princess 
Murat is mistress of two hotels here, one at Brussels, one at 
Tours, and one at Bourdeaux, together with three estates on this, 
and five on the other side of the Alps. The Princess Borghese 
has purchased three plantations at Guadaloupe, and two at Mar-- 
tinico, with a pait of the treasures left her by her first husband^ 
Le Clerc. With her present husband she received two palaces 
at Rome, and three estates on the Roman territory ; and her Im- 
perial brother has presented her with one hotel at Paris, one at 
Cologne, one at Turin, and one at Genoa, together with three es- 
tates in France and five in Italy. For his mother, and for each of his 
sisters, Napoleone has also purchased estates, or lands to form 
estates, in their native island of Corsica. 

The other near or distant relatives of the Emperor and King 
have also experienced his bounty. Cardinal Fesch has his hotels 
at Paris, Milan, Lyons, Turin, and Rome ; with estates both in 
France and Italy. -Seventeeen, either first, second, or third 



284 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

cousins, by his father or mother's side, have all obtained estates 
either in the French empire, or in the kingdom of Italy, as well 
as all brothers, sisters, or cousins of his own wife, and the wives of 
his brothers, or of the husbands of his sisters. Their exact num- 
ber cannot be well known, but a gentleman who has long been 
collecting materials for some future history of the house of 
Buonaparte, and of the French empire, has already shewn me 
sixty-six names of individuals of that description, and of both 
sexes, who, all, thanks to the Imperial liberality, have suddenly 
and unexpectedly become people of property. 

When you consider that all these immense riches have been 
seized and distributed within the short period of five years, it is not 
hazardous to say, that in the annais of Europe, another such revo- 
lution in property, as well as in power, is not to be found. The 
wealth of the families of all other Sovereigns taken together does 
not amount to half the value of what the Buonapartes have ac- 
quired <ind possess. 

Your country, more than any other upon earth, has to be 
alarmed at this revolution of property. Richer than any other 
nation, you have more to apprehend ; besides, it threatens you 
moic. both as our frequent enemies, and as our national rivals; as 
a barrier against our plans of universal dominion, and as our supe- 
riors in pecuniary resources. May we never live to see the day, 
when the mandates of Buonaparte or Talleyrand are honoured 
at London, as at Amsterdam, Madrid, Milan and Rome. The 
misery of ages to come will then be certain, and posterity will re- 
gard, as comparative happiness, the sufferings of their forefathers. 
— It is not probable that those who have so successfully pillaged 
all surrounding staves will rest contented until you are involved in 
the same ruin. Union among yourselves can only preserve you 
from perishing in the universal wreck ; by this you will at least 
gain time, and may hope to profit by probable changes and unex- 
pected accidents. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 285 

LETTER LXI. 

Paris, October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

THE counsellor of state, and intendant of the Imperial civil 
list, Daru, paid for the place of a commissary-general of our army 
in Germany the immense sum of six millions of livres, 250,000/. 
which was divided between Madame Buonaparte the mother, Ma- 
dame Napoleone Buonaparte, Princess Louis Buonaparte,Princess 
Murat, and the Princess of Borghese. By this you may conclude 
in what manner we intend to treat the wretched inhabitants of th 
other side of the Rhine. This Daru is too good a calculator, and 
too fond of money, to throw away his expenses ; he is master of 
a great fortune, made entirely by his arithmetical talents, which 
have enabled him for years to break all the principal gambling 
banks on the continent, where he has travelled for no other pur- 
pose. On his return here he became the terror of all our game- 
sters, Avho offered him an annuity of one hundred thousand livres, 
4000/. not to play ; but as this sum would have been deducted 
from what is weekly paid to Fouche, the minister sent him an 
order not to approach a gambling table, under pain of being trans- 
ported to Cayenne. He obeyed, but the bankers soon experienced 
that he had deputies, and for fear that, even from the other side 
of the Atlantic, he might forward his calculations hither, Fouche 
recommended him, for a small douceur, to the office of an inten- 
dant of Buonaparte's civil list, upon condition of never, directly or 
indirectly, injuring our gambling banks. He has kept his pro- 
mise with regard to France, but made, last spring, a gambling tour 
in Italy and Germany ; which, he avows, produced him nine mil- 
lions of livres, 375,000/. He always punts, but never keeps a bank^ 
He begins to be so well known in many parts of the continent that 
the instant he arrives all banks are shut up, and remain so until his 
departure. This was the case at Florence last April. He travels 
always in style, accompanied by two mistresses, and four servants ,- 
He is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. 



286 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

He will, however, have some difficulty to make a great profit 
by his calculations in Germany, as many of the generals are better 
acquainted than he with the country, where their extortions and 
dilapidations have been felt and lamented for these ten years past. 
Augereau, Bernadotte, Ney, Van Damme, and other of our mili- 
tary banditti, have long been the terror of the Germans, and the 
reproach of France. 

In a former letter, I have introduced to you our Field-mar- 
shal Bernadotte, of whom Augereau may justly be called an elder 
revolutionary brother ; like him a Parisian by birth, and like him 
serving as a common soldier before the Revolution ; but he has 
this merit above Bernadotte, that he began his political career as a 
police spy, and finished his first military engagement by desertion 
into foreign countries ; in most of which, after again enlisting and 
again deserting, he was also again taken and again flogged. Italy 
has indeed, since he has been made a general, been more the scene 
of his devastations than Germany. Lombardy and Venice will not 
soon forget the thousands he butchered, and the millions he plun- 
dered ; that, with hands reeking with blood, and stained with hu- 
man gore, he seized the trinkets which devotion had given to 
sanctity, to ornament the fingers of an assassin, or decorate the 
bosom of a harlot. The outrages he committed during 1796 and 
1797, in Italy, are too numerous to find place in any letter, even 
were they not disgusting to relate, and too enormous and too im- 
probable to be believed. He frequently transformed the temples 
of the divinity into brothels for prostitution ; and virgins, who had 
consecrated themselves to remain the unpolluted servants of God, 
he bayoneted into dens of impurity, infamy and profligacy ; and in 
these abominations he prided himself In August 1797, on his 
way to Paris, to take command of the sbirri, who, on the 4th of 
the following September, hunted away or imprisoned the repre- 
sentatives of the people of the Legislative Body, he paid a prosti- 
tute, with whom he had passed the night at Pavia, with a draft for 
fifty Louis d'or on the municipality of that town, who dared not 
dishonour it ; but they kept the draft, and in 1799, handed it over 
to General Melas, who sent it to Vienna, where I saw the very 
original. 

The general and grand officer of Buonaparte's Legion of 
Honour, Van Damme, is another of our military heroes of the 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 287 

same stamp. A barber, and son of a Flemish barber, he enlisted 
as a soldier, robbed, and was condemned to be hanged. The hu- 
manity of the judge preserved him from the gallows ; but he was 
burnt on the shoulders, flogged by the public executioner, and 
doomed to serve as a galley-slave for life. The Revolution broke 
his fetters, made him a jacobin, a patriot, and a general ; but the 
first use he made of his good fortune wss to cause the judge, his 
benefactor, to be guillotined, and to appropriate to himself the 
estate of the family. He was cashiered by Pichegi'u, and disho- 
noured by Moreau, for his ferocity and plunder in Holland and 
Germany ; but Buonaparte restored him to rank and confidence ; 
and, by a douceur of twelve hundred thousand livres, 50,000/. 
properly applied and divided between some of the members of 
the Buonaparte family, he procured the place of a governor at 
Lille, and a commander in chief of the ci-devani Flanders. In 
landed property, in jewels, in sums in the funds, and in ready 
money (he always keeps from prudence, six hundred thousand 
livres, 25,000/. in gold), his riches amount to eight millions of 
livres, 335,000/. For a ci-devant sans-culotte barber and galley- 
slave you must grant this is a very modest sum. 



LETTER LXn. 

Paris, October 1805. 



HY LORB, 



YOU must often have been surprised at the immense wealth 
which, from the best and often authentic information, I have in- 
formed you our generals and public functionaries have extorted and 
possess ; but the catalogue of private rapine, committed without 
authority, by our soldiers, officers, commissai'ies, and generals, 
is likewise immense, and surpassing often the exactions of a le- 
gal kind, that is to say, those authorized by our government itself, 
or by its civil and military representatives. It comprehends the 
innumerable requisitions demsipded and enforced, whether as 



288 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

loans, or in provisions, or merchandize, or in money, as an equiva- 
lent for both ; the levies of men, of horses, oxen, and carriages ; 
corvees of all kinds ; the emptying of magazines for the service 
of our armies; in short, whatever was required for the main- 
tenance, a portion of the pay, and divers wants of those armies, 
from the time they had posted themselves in Brabant, Holland, 
Italy, Switzerland, and on either bank of the Rhine ; add to this 
the pillage of public or private warehouses, granaries, and maga- 
zines, whether belonging to individuals, to the state, to societies, 
to towns, to hospitals, and even to orphan houses. 

But these and other sort oi requisitions^ under the appellation 
of subsistence necessary for the armies, and for what was wanted 
for accoutring, quartering, or removing them, included also an in- 
finite consumption for pleasures, luxuries, whims, and debauch- 
eries of our civil or military commanders. Most of those articles 
were delivered in kind, and what were not used were set up to 
auction, converted into ready money, and divided among the 
plunderers. 

In 1797, General Ney had the command in the vicinity of 
the free and Imperial city of Wetzlar. He there put in requisi- 
tion all private stores of cloths ; and after disposing of them by a 
public sale, retook them upon another requisition from the pur- 
chasers, and sold them a second time. Leather ^tJid linen under- 
went the same operation. Volumes might be filled with similar 
examples, all of public notoriety. 

This General Ney, who is now one of the principal com- 
manders under Buonaparte in Germany, was a bankrupt tobacco- 
nist at Strasburgh in 1790, and is the son of an old clothesman of 
Sarre Louis, where he was born in 1765. Having entered as a com- 
mon soldier in the regiment of Alsace, to escape the pursuit of his 
creditors, he was there picked up by some jacobin emissaries, 
whom he assisted to seduce the men into an insurrection, which 
obliged most of the officers to emigrate. From that period he 
began to distinguish himself as an orator of the jacobin clubs, and 
was there fore, by his associates, promoted by one step to an adjutant- 
general. Brave and enterprising, ambitious for advancement, and 
greedy after riches, he seized every opportunity to distmguish 
and enrich himself; and, as fortune supported his endeavours, he 
was in a short time made a general of division, and acquired a 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 289 

pvoperty of sevisral millions. This is his first campaign under 

Buonaparte, having previously served only under Pichegru, 

Moreau, and Lecourbe. 

He vv^ith General Richepanse, was one of the first generals 
supposed to be attached to their former chief, General Moreau, 
whom Buonaparte seduced into his interest. In the autumn of 

1802, when the Helvetian Repiiblic attempted to recover their 
lost independence, Ney v^as appointed commander in chief of th& 
French army in Switzerland, and ambassador from the First Con- 
sul to the Helvetic government. He there conducted himself so 
much to the satisfaction of Buonaparte, that, on the rupture with 
your country, he was made commander of the camp near Mon- 
ti'euil ; and last year his wife was received as a mtiid of honour to 
the Empress of the French. 

This maid of honour is the daughter of a washer-woman, and 
was kept by a man-milliner at Strasburgh, at the time that she 
eloped with Ney. With him she had made four campaigns a'S a 
mistress, before the municipality of Cobientz made her his wife. 
Her conduct since has corresponded with that of her husband. 
When he publicly lived with mistresses, she did not live privately 
with her gallants ; but the instant the Emperor of the French 
told him to save appearances, if he desired a place for his wife at 
the Imperial court, he shewed himself the most attentive and 
faithful of husbands, and she the most tender and dutiful of wives. 
Her manners are not polished, but they are pleasing; and though 
not handsome in her person, she is lively; and her conversation is 
entertaining, and her society agreeable. The Princess Louis 
Buonaparte is particularly fond of her, more so than Napoleone 
perhaps desires. She has a fault, common with most of our court 
ladies ; she cannot resist, when opportunity presents itself, the 
temptation of gambling, and she is far from being fortunate. Re- 
port says, that more than once she has been reduced to acquit her 
gambling debts by personal favours. 

Another of our generals, and the richest of them all, who are 
now serving under Buonaparte, is his brother-in-law. Prince 
Murat. According to some, he had been a Septembrizer, ter- 
rorist, jacobin, robber, and assassin, long before he obtained his 
first commission as an officer ; which was given him by the re- 
commendation of Marat, whom he in return aftei^wards wished to 

P p 



290 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

immortalize^ by the exchange of one letter in his own name, and by 
calling himself Marat, instead of Mwrat. Others, however, de- 
clare, that his father was an honest cobler, very superstitious, re- 
siding at Bastide, near Cahors, and destined his son to be a capu- 
chin friar, and that he was in his novitiate, when the Revolution 
tempted him to exchange the cowl of a monk for the regimentals 
of a soldier. In what manner, or by what achievements, he gained 
promotion, is not certain, but in 1796 he was a chief of brigade, 
and an aide-de-camp of Buonaparte, with whom he went to Egypt, 
and returned thence with him; and who, in 1801, married him to 
his sister Maria Annunciade, in 1803 made him a Governor af 
Paris, and in 1804 a Prince ! 

The wealth which Murat has collected during his military 
service, and by his matrimonial campaign, is rated at upwards af 
fifty millions of livres, 2,100,000/. The landed property he pos- 
sesses in France alone has cost him forty two millions, 1,750,000/. 
and it is whispered, that the estates bought in the name of his 
wife, both in France and Italy, are not worth much less. A brother- 
in-law of his, who was a smith, he has made a legislator ; and an 
uncle, who was a tailor, he has placed in the senate. A cousin of 
his, who was a chimney-sweeper, is now a tribune ; and his niece, 
who was an apprentice to a mantua-maker, is now married to one 
of the Emperor's chamberlains. He has been very generous to 
all his relations, and would not have been ashamed even to present 
his parents at the Imperial Court, had not the mother on the first 
information of his princely rank, lost her life, and the father his 
senses, — from surprise and joy. The millions are not few, that he 
has pi'ocui'ed his relatives an opportunity to gain. His brother-in- 
law, the legislator, is worth three million of livres; 125,000/. 

It has been asserted before, and I repeat it again : " It is 
avarice, and not the mania of innovation, or the jai'gon of liberty, 
that has led, and ever will lead the Revolution, its promoters, its 
accomplices, and its instruments. Wherever they penetrate, 
plunder follows ; rapine was their first object, of which ferocity 
has been but the means. The French Revolution was fostere4 by 
robbery and murder, two nurses that will adhere to her to the last 
hour of her existence." 

General Murat is the trusty executioner of all the Empe- 
ror's secret deeds of vengeance, or public acts of revolutionary 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 2^1 

justice. It was under his private responsibility, that Pichegru, 
Moreau, and Georges were guarded; and he saw Pichegru 
strangled, Georges guillotined, and Moreau on the way to his 
place of exile. After the seizure and trial of the Duke of Enghien, 
some doubts existed with Napoleone, whether even the soldiers of 
his Italian guard would fire at this Prince. " If they hesitate," 
said Murat, who commanded the expedition in the wood of Vin- 
cennes " my pistols are loaded, and I will blow out his brains." 
His wife is the greatest coquette of the Buonaparte family. 
Murat was at first after his marriage, rather jealous of his brother- 
in-law Lucien, whom he even fought ; but Napoleone having as- 
sured him, upon his word of honour, that his suspicions were un- 
founded, he is now the model of complaisant and indulgent 
husbands ; but his mistresses are nearly as numerous as Madame 
Murat's favourites. He has a young man aide-de-camp of the 
name of Flahault, a son of Talleyrand, while bishop of Autun, by 
the then Countess de Flahault, whom Madame Murat would not 
have been sorry to have had for a consoler at Paris, while her 
princely spouse is desolating Germany. 



LETTER LXIII. 

Paris. October 1805. 



MY LORD, 



SINCE Buonaparte's departure for Germany, the vigilance 
of tlie police has much increased ; our patroles are doubled during 
the night, and our spies more numerous and more insolent during 
the day. Many susfiected persons have also been exiled to some 
distance from tliis capital, while others, for a measure of safety^ 
have been shut up in the Temple, or in the Castle of Vincennes. 
These lettres de cachet, or mandates of arrest, are expedited 
during the Emperor's absence exclusively by his brother Louis, 
after a report, or upon a request, of the minister of police, 
FoHch6'. 



292 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

I have mentioned to you before, that Louis Buonaparte ia- 
both a drunkard and a libertine. When a young and unprincipled 
■man of such propensities enjoys an unrestrained authority, it can- 
not be surprising to heai^ that he has abused it. He had not been 
his brother's military viceroy twenty -four hours, before one set of 
our Parisians were amused, while others were shocked and scan- 
dalized at a tragical intrigue enterprised by his Imperial High- 
ness, 

Happening to see at the opera a very handsome young 
woman in the boxes, he dispatched one of his aides-de-camp to re- 
connoitre the ground, and to find out who she was. All gentlemen 
attached to his person or household are also his pimps, and are 
no novices in forming or executing plans of seduction. Caulin- 
court (the officer he employed in this affair) i-eturried soon, but 
had succeeded only in one part of the business. He had not been 
able to speak to the lady, but was informed that she had only been 
married a fortnight to a manufacturer of Lyons, who was seated 
by her side, jealous of his wife as a lover of his mistress. He gave 
at the same time, as his opinion, that it would be necessary to em- «• 
ploy the police commissary to arrest the husband when he left 
the play, under some pretext or other, while some oi the friends 
of Prince Louis took advantage of the confusion to seize the wife, 
and carry her to his hotel. An order was directly signed by Louis, 
according to which the police commissary, Chazot, was to arrest 
the manufacturer, Leboure, of Lyons, and put him into a post- 
chaise, under the care of two gens-d'armes, Avho were to see him 
safe to Lyons, where he was to sign a promise of not returning tb 
Paris without the permission of government, being suspected of 
stock-jobbing (agiotage). Every thing succeeded according to 
the proposal of Caulincourt, andiLouis found Madame Leboure 
crying in his saloon. It is said that she promised to surrender her 
virtue, upon condition of only once more seeing her husband, to 
be certain that he was not murdered, but that Louis refused, and 
obtained by brutal force, and the assistance of his infamous asso- 
ciates, that conquest over her honour which had not been yielded 
to Ivis entreaties or threats. His enjoyment, however, was but of 
short continuance : he had no sooner fallen asleep, than his poor 
injured victim left the bed, and flying into his anti-room, stabbed 
herself with his sword. On the next morning she was found<a 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 293 

corpse, weltering in her blood. In the hope of burying this in- 
famy in secrecy, her body was, on the next evening, when it was 
dark, put into a sack, and thi'own into the river ; where, being 
afterwards discovered, the police agents gave out that she had 
fallen the victim of assassins. But when Madame Leboure was 
thus seized at the opera, besides her husband, her parents and a 
brother were in her company ; and the latter did not lose sight of 
the carriage in wliich his sister was placed, till it had entered the 
hotel of Louis JJuonaparte, where on the next day, he, with his 
father, in vain, claimed her. As soon as the husband was inform- 
ed of the untimely end of his wife, he wrote a letter to her mur- 
derer, and shot himself immediately afterwards through the head: 
but his own head was not the place where he should have sent 
the bullet ; to destroy with it the cause of his wretchedness would 
only have been an act of retaliation, in a country where power 
forces the law to lie dormant, and where justice is invoked^^in vain, 
when the criminal is powerful, 

I have said that this intrigue, as it is styled by courtesy, in 
our fashionable circles, amused one part of the Parisians ; and I 
believe the word amuse is not improperly employed in this in- 
stance. In a dozen parties where I have been since, this unfortu- 
nate adventure has always been an object of conversation, of witti' 
cisms^ but not of blame, except at Madame Fouche's, where 
Madame Leboure was very much blamed, indeed,ypr having been 
so over mce^ and foolishly scrufiulous. 

Another intrigue of his Imperial Highness, which did not in- 
deed end tragically, was related last night, at the tea-party of 
Madame Recamier. A man of the name of Deroux had lately 
been condemned by our criminal tribunal, for forging bills of ex- 
change, to stand in the pillory six hours, and after being marked 
with a hot iron on his shoulders, to work in the galleys for twenty 
years. His daughter, a young girl, under fifteen, who lived with 
her grandmo^lier (having lost her mother), went, accompanied by 
the old lady, jnd presented a petition to Louis, in favour of her 
father. H^i^^rmith and modesty, more than her beauty, inspired 
the unprintslpl^ libertine with a desire of ruining innocence, un* 
der the colodr^of clemency to guilt. He ordered her to call on his 
chamberlain Darjusson, in an hour, and she should obtain an 
answer. There, either seduced by patei'nal affection, intimidated 



294 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

by threats, or imposed upon by delusive and engaging promises, 
she engaged her virtue for an order of release for a parent ; and 
so satisfied was Louis with his bargain, that he added her to the 
number of his regular mistresses. 

As soon as Deroux had recovered his liberty, he visited his 
daughter in her new situation, where he saw an order of Louis, 
on the Imperial treasury, for twelve thousand livres, 500/. destined 
to pay the upholsterer who had furnished her apartment. This 
gave him, no doubt, the idea of making the Prince pay a higher 
value for his child, and he forged another order for sixty thousand 
livres, 2500/., so closely resembling it, that it was without suspi- 
cion acquitted by the Imperial treasurer. Possessing this money, 
he fabricated a pass in the name of Louis, as a courier carrying 
dispatches to the Emperor in Germany, with which he set out, 
and arrived safe on the other side of the Rhine. His forgeries 
were only discovered after he had written a letter from Frankfort 
to Louis, acquitting his daughter of all knowledge of what he had 
done. In the first moment of anger, her Imperial lover ordered 
her to be arrested, but he has since forgiven her, and taken her 
back to his favour. This ti-ick of Deroux has pleased Fouche, 
who long opposed his release, from a knowledge of his dangerous 
talent and vicious character. He had once before released him- 
self with a forged order from the mmister of police, whose hand- 
writing he had only seen in a minute upon his own mandate o 
imprisonment. 



LETTER LXIV. 



Faris^ October 1805. 

MY LORD, .rJjjO;, 

•\fP..,.. 
THOUGH loudly complained of by the Cabine}:vofJ^pt. Cloud, 

the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh has conducted itself jj^HfTiese criti- 
cal times with prudence without weakness, and wiyi, firmness 
without obstinacy. In its connexions vi^ith our government it has 
never lost sight of its own dignity, and therefore never endured 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. , 295 

without resentment those impertinent innovations in the etiquette 
of our court, and in the manner and language of our Emperor to 
the representatives of legitimate sovereigns. Had similar be- 
coming sentiments directed the councils of all other princes, and 
the behaviour of tlieir ambassadors here, spirited remonstrances 
might have moderated the pretensions or passions of upstart 
vanity, while a forbearance and silence equally impolitic and shame- 
ful have augmented insolence, by fiatteiing the pride of an insup- 
portable and outrageous ambition. 

The Emperor of Russia vi^ould not have been so well repre- 
sented here, had he not been so wisely served and advised in his 
council-chamber at St. Petersburg!!. Ignorance and folly com- 
monly select fools for their agents, while genius and capacity em- 
ploy men of their own mould, and of their own cast. It is a re- 
markable truth that, notwithstanding the frequent revolutions in 
Russia, since the death of Peter the First, the ministerial helm 
has always been in able hands ; the progressive and uninterrupted 
increase of the real and relative power of the Russian empire 
evinces the reality of this assertion. 

The Russian chancellor, Count Alexander Woronzoff, may 
be justly called the chief of political veterans, whether his talents 
or long services are considered. Catherine II, though a voluptu- 
ous Princess was a great Sovereign, and a competent judge of 
merit ; and it was her unbiassed choice that seated Covmt Woron- 
zoff, while yet young, in her counsils. Though the intrigues of 
favourites have sometimes removed him, he always retired with 
the esteem of his Sovereign, and was recalled without caballing 
er cringing to return. He is admired by all who have the honour 
of approaching him, as much for his obliging condescension as for 
his great information. No petty views, no petty caprices, no petty 
vengeances find room in his generous bosom. He is known to 
have conferred benefactions not only on his enernies, but on those 
who at the very time were meditating his destruction. His opi- 
nion is, that a patriotic minister should, regard no other as his ene- 
mies but those conspiring against their country, and acknowledge 
no friends or favourites incapable of well serving the state. Prince 

de Z waited on him one day, and after hesitating some 

time, began to compliment him on his liberal sentiments, and con- 
cluded by asking the place of a gQvernpr for his cousin, with whom 



296 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

he had reason to suppose the Count much offended. " I am 
happy," said his Excellency, " to oblige you, and to do my duty 
at the same time. Here is a libel he wrote against me, and pre- 
sented to the Empress, who graciously has communicated it to 
me, in answer to my recommendation of him yesterday, to the 
place you ask for him to-day. Read what I have written on the 
libel, and you will be convinced that it is not my fault, if he is not 
to-day a governor." In two hours afterwards, the nomination was 

announced to Prince de Z •, vt^ho was himself at the head of a 

cabal against the minister. In any country such an act would 
have been laudable, but where despotism rules with unopposed 
sway, it is both honourable and praiseworthy. 

Prince Adani de Czartorinsky, the assistant of Count de 
Woronzoff, and minister of the foreign department, unites with 
the vigour of youth the experience of age. He has travelled in 
miost countries of Europe, not solely to figure at courts, to dance 
at balls, to look at pictures, or to collect curiosities, but to study 
the characters of the people, the laws by which they are governed, 
and their moral or social influence, with regard to their comforts 
or misery. He therefore brought back with him a stock of know- 
ledge, not to be acquired in books, but only found in the world by 
frequenting different and opposite societies with observation, 
penetration, and genius. With manners as polished as his mind 
is well informed, he not only possesses the favour but the friend- 
ship of his Prince ; and, what is still more rare, is worthy of both. 
All sovereigns have favourites, few ever had any friends ; because 
it is more easy to flatter vanity than to display a liberal disin- 
terestedness ; to bow meanly than to instruct or to guide with deli- 
cacy and dignity ; to abuse the confidence of the prince than to 
use it to his honour, and to the advantage of his government. 

That such a monarch as an Alexander, and such ministers 
as Count de Woronzoff and Prince de Czartorinsky should ap- 
point a Count de Markoff to a high and important post was not 
unexpected by any one not ignorant of his merit. 

Count de Markoff was, early in the reign of Catherine II, 
employed in the ofiice of the foreign department at St. Peters- 
burgh, and was, whilst young, entrusted with several important 
negotiations at the Courts of Berlin and Vienna, when Prussia had 
proposed the first partition of Poland. He afterwards went on hii* 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 2Pl 

travels, from which he was recalled to fill the place of an ambas- 
sador to the late King of Sweden, Gustavus III. He was suc- 
ceeded, in 1784, at Stockliolm, by Count Muschin Puschin, after 
being appointed a secretary of state in his own country ; a post 
he occupied with distinction, until the death of Catherine II, when 
Paul the First revenged upon him, as well as on most others of 
the faithful servants of this Princess, his discontent with his mo- 
ther. He was then exiled to his estates, where he retired with 
the esteem of all those who had known him. In 1801, immedi^ 
ately after his accession to the throne, Alexander invited Count 
de Markoff to his court and council ; and the trusty but difficult 
task of representing a legitimate sovereign at the court of our up* 
start usurper was conferred on him. I imagine that I see the 
great surprise of this nobleman, when,, for the first time, he en- 
tered the audience-charaber of our little great man, and saw himi 
fretting, staring, swearing, abusing to right and to left, for one 
smile conferring twenty frowns, and for one civil word making; 
use of fifty harsh expressions, marching in the diplomatic audi^ 
ence as at the head of his troops, and commanding foreign ambas- 
sadors as his French soldiers. I have heard that the report of 
Count de Markoff to his court, describing this new and rare show, 
is a chef-d'osuvi*e of wit, equally amusing and instructive. He is 
said to have requested of his cabinet new and particular orders 
how to act; whether as the representative of an independent 
Sovereign, or, as most of the other members of the foreign diplo- 
matic corps in France, like a valet of the First Consul ; and that, 
in the latter case, he implored as a fayour an immediate recal : 
preferring, had he no other choice left, sooner to work in the 
mines in Siberia than to wear in France the disgraceful fetters of 
a Buonaparte. His subsequent dignified conduct proves the an- 
swer of his court. 

Talleyrand's craft and dissimulation could not delude the 
sagacity of Count de Markoff, who was, therefore, soon less liked 
by the minister, than by the First Consul. All kind of low, vul- 
gar, and revolutionary chicanery was made use of, to vex or to 
provoke the Russian ambassador. Sometimes he was reproached, 
as having emigrants in his service ; another time, protection was 
refused to one of his secretaries, under pretence that he was a 
Sardinian subject. Ru,s&ian travellers were insulted, and detained 

Q q 



^98 SECRET HISTORY OP THE 

on the most frivolous pretences. Two Russian nobleman were 
even arrested on our side of the Rhine, because Talleyrand had 
forgot to sign his name to their passes, which were otherwise in 
order. The fact was, that our minister suspected them of carry- 
ing some papers, which he wanted to see, and therefore wrote his 
name with an ink of such a composition, that, after a certain num- 
ber of days, ievery thing written with it disappeared. Their ef- 
fects and papers were strictly searched by an agent preceding 
them from this capital, but nothing was found ; our minister being 
misinformed by his spies. 

When Count de Markoff left Sweden, he carried with him 
an actress of the French theatre at Stockholm, Madame Hus, ain 
Alsacian by birth, but who had quitted her country twelve years 
before the Revolution, and could therefore never be included 
among emigrants. She had continued as a mistress and an agree- 
able companion with this nobleman, and is the mother of several 
children by him, who has never been married. As I have often 
said, Talleyrand is much obliged to any foreign diplomatic agent, 
who allows him to be the indirect provider or procurer of his mis- 
tresses : after in vain tempting Count de Markoff with new ob- 
jects, he introduced to the acquaintance of Madame Hus some 
of his female emissaries. Their manoeuvres, their insinuations, 
and even their presents, were all thrown away. The lady re- 
raiained a faithful friend, and therefore refused with indignation 
to degrade herself into b spy on her lover. Our minister then 
first discovered that not only Madame Hus was an emigrant, but 
had been a great benefactress, and constant companion of emi- 
grants at St. Petersburgh, and of course deserved to be watched, 
if not punished. Count de Markoff is reported to have said to 
TalleyrEind, on this grave subject, in tlie presence of two other 
foreign ambassadors : " A-propos ! what shall I do, to prevent my 
poor Madame Hus from being shot as an emigrant, and my poor 
children from becoming prematuraly orphans ?" — " Sir," said 
our diplomatic oracle, " she should have petitioned the First 
Consul for permission to return to France, before she entered it ; 
but, in regard for you, if she is prudent^ she will not, I dare say, 
be troubled by our government." — " I should be sorry if she was 
not," replied the Count, Avith a significant look ; and here this 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 299 

grand affair ended, to the great entertainment of all the foreign 
agents, who dared to smile or to laugh. 



LETTER LXV. 

Paris, October 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THE Legion of Honour, though only proclaimed upon 
.Buonaparte's assumption of the Imperial rank, dates froin the 
first year of his consulate. To prepare the public mind for a 
progressive elevation of himself, and for consequential distinctions 
among all classes of his subjects, he distributed among the milita- 
ry, arms of honour, to which were attached precedence and privi- 
leges granted by him, and therefore liable to cease with his power 
or life. The number of these arms, increased in proportion to 
the approach of the period fixed for the change of his title, and 
the erection of his throne. When he judged them numerous 
enough to support his changes, he made all these wearers of arms 
of honour, Knigltts ; never before were so many chevaliers crea- 
ted en masse: they amounted to no less than twenty two thousand 
four hundred, distributed in the different corps of different armies, 
but principally in the army of England. To these wei'e after- 
wards joined five thousand nine hundred civil functionaries, men 
of letters, artists, &c. To remove, however, all ideas of equality, 
even among the members of the Legion of Honour, they were 
divided into four classes, grand officers, commanders, officers, and 
simple legionaries. 

Every one, who has observed Buonaparte's incessant endea- 
vours to intrude himself among the Sovereigns of Europe, was 
convinced that he would cajole, or force as many of them as he 
could, into his revolutionary knighthood ; but I heard men, who 
are not ignorant of the selfishness and corruption of our times, 
deny the possibility of any independent Prince suffering his name 
to be registered among criminals of every description, from the 
thief Avho picked the pockets of his fellow-citizens in the street, 



300 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

down to tlie regidde who sat in judgment and condemned his 
Kmg ; from tiie plunderers who have laid waste provinces, re- 
publics, and kingdoms, down to assassins who shot, drowned, or 
guiliotined their countrymen en masse. For my part, I never had 
but one opinion, and it unfortunately has turned out a just one. 
I always was convinced that those Princes who received other 
presents from Buonaparte could have no plausible excuse to de- 
cline his ribands, crosses, and stars. But who could have pre- 
sumed to think, that in return for these bloodstained baubles, they 
would have sacrificed those honourable and dignified ornaments, 
which, for ages past, have been the exclusive distinction of what 
birth had exalted, virtue made eminent, talents conspicuous, ho- 
nour illustrious, or valour meritorious ! Who would have dared 
to say, that the Prussian Eagle and the Spanish Golden Fleece 
should thus be prostituted, thus polluted? I do not mean, by this 
remark, to throw any blame on the conferring those and other 
orders on Nupoleone Buonaparte, or even on his brothers ; I know 
it is usual, between legitimate Sovereigns in alliance, sometimes to 
exchange their knighthoods ; but to debase royal orders so much 
as to present them to a Cambaceres, a Talleyrand, a Fouche, a 
Bernadotte, a Fesch, and other vile and criminal wretches, I do not 
deny, to have excited my astonishment, as well as my indignation. 
"W hat honest, I do not say, what noble subject of Prussia, or of 
Spain, will hereafter think themselves rewarded for their loyalty, 
industry, patriotism, or zeal, when they remember that their Sove- 
reigns have nothing to give but what the rebel has obtained, the 
robber worn, the murderer vilified, and the regicide debased ? 

The number of grand officers of the Legion of Honour does 
not yet annount to more than eighty ; according to a list, circulated 
at Milan laat sfiring, of which I have seen a copy. Of these grand 
officers, tiiree had been shoemakers, two tailors, tburbkers,;a four 
barbel's, six friars, eight abbes, six officers, three pedlars, three 
chandlers, seven drummers, sixteen soldiers, and eight regicides; 
four were lawful Kings, and the six other. Electors or Princes of 
the most ancient houses in Europe. I have looked over our own 
official list, and as far as I know, the calculation is exact, both with 
regard to the number and to the quality. 

This new institution of knighthood produced a singular effect 
on my vain and giddy cotmtrymen, who, for twelve years before. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 301 

had scarcely seen a star or a riband, except those of foreign am- 
bassadors, who were frequently insulted when wearing tliem. It 
became now the fashion to be a knight, and those who really were 
not so put pinks, or rather blooms, or flowers of a darker red, in 
their bolton-holes, so as to resemble, and to be taken at a distance 
for, the red ribands of the members of the Legion of Honour. 

A man of the name of Villeaume, an engraver by profession, 
took advantage of this knightly fashion and mania, and sold for 
four Louis d'ors, not only the stars, but pretended letters of knight- 
hood, said to be procured by his connexion with persons of the 
household of the Emperor. In a month's time, according to a re- 
gister kept by him, he had made twelve hundred and fifty knights. 
When his fraud was discovered, he was already out of the way^ 
safe with his money ; and notwithstanding the researches of the 
police, has not since been taken. 

A person, calling himself Baron Von Rinken, a subject and 
an agent of one of the many Princes of Hohenlohe, according to 
his own assertion, arrived here with real letters and patents of 
knighthood, which he offered to sale for three hundred livres, 12/. 
The stars of this order were as large as the star of the grand officers 
of the Legion of Honour, and nearly resembled it ; but the ribands 
were of a different colour. He had already disposed of a dozen 
of these stars, wRen he was taken up by the police, and shut up 
in the Temple, where he still i^emains. Four other agents of in- 
ferior petty German Princes have also been arrested, for offering 
the orders of their Sovereigns to sale. 

A Captain Rouvais, who received six wounds in his campaign 
imder Pichegru, in 1794, woi-e the star of the Legion of Honour 
without being nominated a knight. He has been tried by a mili- 
tary commission, deprived of his pension, and condemned to four 
years imprisonment, in irons. He proved that he had presented 
fourteen petitions to Buonaparte, for obtaining this mark of dis- 
tinction, but in vain ; while hundreds of others, who had hardly 
seen an enemy, or at the most made but one campaign, or been 
once wounded, had succeeded in their demands. As soon as sen- 
tence 4iad been pronounced against him, he took a small pistol 
from his pocket, and shot himself through the head, saying, 
** Some one else will soon do the same for Buonaparte." 



302 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

A cobler, of the name of Matthieu, either in a fit of madne&s, 
or from hatred to the new order of things, decorated himself with 
. the large riband of the Legion of Honour, and had an old star fas- 
tened on his coat. Thus accoutred, he went into the Palais 
Royal, in the middle of the day, got upon a chair, and began to 
speak to his audience of tlie absurdity of true republicans not be- 
ing on a level, even under an Emperor, and putting on, like him- 
self, all his ridiculous ornaments. " We are here," said he, 
" either all grand officers, or there exist no grand officers at all ; 
we have all fought and paid for liberty, and for the Revolution, as 
much as Buonaparte, and have therefore the same right and claim 
with him." Here a police agent and some gens-d'armes inter- 
rupted his eloquence, by taking him into custody. When Fouche 
asked him what he meant by such a rebellious behaviour ; he re- 
plied, " that it was only a trial, to see whether destiny had in- 
tended him to become an Emperor, or to remain a cobler." On 
the next day he was shot as a conspirator. I saw the unfortunate 
man in the Palais Royal ; his eyes looked wild, and his words 
were often incoherent. He was certainly a subject more deserv- 
ing a place in a mad-house than in a tomb. 

Cambaceres has been severely reprimanded by the Emperor, 
for shewing too inuch partiality for the Royal Prussian Black 
Eagle, by wearing it in preference to the Imperial Legion of 
Honour. He was given to understand, that, except four days in 
the year, the Imperial etiquette did not permit any subjects to 
display their knighthood of the Prussian Order. In Madame 
Buonaparte's last drawing-room, before his Imperial Majesty set 
* out for the Rhine, he was ornamented with the Spanish, Neapoli- 
tan, Prussian, and Portuguese Orders, together with those of the 
French Legion of Honour, and of the Italian Iron Crown. 1 have 
seen the Emperor Paul, who was also an amateur of ribands and 
stars, but never with so many at once. I have just heard that the 
Grand Master of Malta has presented Napoleone with the Grand 
Cross of the Maltese Order. This is certainly a negative com- 
pliment to him, who, in July 1798, officially declared to his then 
sectaries, the Turks and Mussulmen, " that the Grand Master, 
Commanders, Knights and Order of Malta, existed no more" 

I have heard it related for a certainty, among our fashiona- 
ble ladies, that the Empress of the French also intends to institute 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD- 303 

•a new order of female knighthood, not of honour, but of coiifidence"; 
of which all our court ladies, all the wives of our generals, public 
functionaries, &c. are to be members. The Imperial Princesses 
of the Bounaparte family are to be hereditary grand officers, to- 
gether with as many foreign empresses, queens, princesses, coun- 
tesses, and baronesses, as can be bayonetted into this revolution- 
ary sisterhood. Had the continent remained tranquil, it would 
already have been officially announced by a Senatus Consultum. 
I should suppose that Madame Bounaparte, with her splendid 
court, and brilliant retinue of German Princes and Electors at 
Sti'asburgh, need only say a word, to find hundreds of princely 
recruits for her knighthood in petto. Her mantle, as a Grand 
Mistress of the Order of Confidence, has been already embroi- 
dered at Lyons ; and those who have seen it assert that it is truly 
superb. The diamonds of the star on the mantle are valued &.i 
six hundred thousand livres, 25,000(f. 



LETTER LXVI. 

Paris, October 1805. 

JHY LORD, 

SINCE Buonaparte's departure for Germany, fifteen indi- 
viduals have been bi'ought here chained from La Vendee, and the 
western departments, and are imprisoned in the Temple. Their , 
crime is not exactly known ; but private letters from those coun- 
tries relate that they were recruiting for another insurrection, and 
that some of them were entrusted as ambassadors from their dis- 
contented countrymen to Louis XVIII, to ask for his return to 
France, and for the assistance of Russia^ Sweden, and England, to 
support his claims. 

These are, however, reports to which I do not affix much 
credit. Had the prisoners in the Temple been guilty, or only 
accused, of such crimes, they would long ago have been tortured, 
ti'ied and executed, or executed without a trial. I suppose them 
mere hostages arrested by eiir goveriiment, as security for the 



304 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

tranquillity- of the Chouan departments, during our armies' occu- 
pation elsewhere. We have, nevertheless, two moveable columns 
of six thousand men each in the country, or in its vicinity, and 
it would not be only impolitic, but a cruelty, to engage or allure 
the unfortunate people of these wretched countries into any plots, 
which, situated as affairs rrow are, would be productive of great 
and certain evil to them, without even the probability of any benefit 
to the cause of Royalty, and of the Bourbons. I do not mean to 
say by this that no disaffection exists against Buonaparte's tyranny, 
or that the Bourbons have no friends ; on the contrary, the latter 
are not few, and the former very numerous. But a kind of apa- 
thy, the effect of unavailing resistance to usurpation and oppres- 
sion, has seized on most minds, and annihilated what little re- 
mained of our never very great public spirit. We are tired of 
every thing, even of our existence, and care no more whether 
we are governed by a Robespierre, or by a Buonaparte, by a 
Barras, or by Louis XVni. Except, perhaps, among the mili- 
tary, or among some ambitious schemers, remnants of former 
factions, I do not believe a Moreau, a Macdonald, a Lucien Buo- 
naparte, or any person exiled by the Emperor, and formerly popu- 
lar, could collect fifty trusty conspirators in all France ; at least, 
as long as our armies are victorious, and organized in their pre- 
sent formidable manner. Should any thing happen to our present 
chief, an impulse may be given to the minds now sunk down, and 
raise our characters from their present torpid state. But until 
such an event, we shall remain as we are ; indolent but submis- 
sive, sacrificing our children and treasures for a cause we detest, 
and for a man we abhor. I am sorry to say it, but it ceitidnly 
does no honour to my nation, when one million of desperadoes, 
of civil and military banditti, are suffered to govern, tyrannize 
and pillage, at their ease, and undisturbed, thirty millions of 
people, to whom their past crimes are known, and who have every 
reason to apprehend their future wickedness 

This astonishing resignqfion (if I can call it so, and if it does not 
deserve a worse name), is so much the more incomprehensible, 
as the poverty of the higher and the middling classes is as great 
as the misery of the people ; and except those employed under 
Buonaparte, and some few upstart contractors, or army commis- 
saries, the greatest privations must be submitted to, in order to 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 305 

pay the enormous taxes, and make a decent appearance. I know 
families of five, six, and seven persons, who formerly were 
wealthy, and now have for a scanty subsistence an income of 
twelve or eighteen hundred livres, 50/. or 751. per year, with which 
they are obliged to live as they can ; being deprived of all the 
resource that elsewhere labour offers to the industrious^ and all 
the succours compassion bestows on the necessitous. You know 
that here all trade, and all commerce, are at. a stand or destroyed ; 
and the hearts of onr. modem rich are as unfeeling as their man- 
ners are vulgar and brutal. 

A family of ci-devaat nobles of my acquaintance, possessing 
once a revenue of one hundred and fifty thousand livres, 6000/. 
subsist now on fifteen hundred livres, 62/, per year ; and this sum 
must support six individuals, the father, and mother, with four 
children ! It does so indeed, by an arragement of only one poor 
meal in the day ; a dinner four times, and a supper three time& 
in the week. They endure their distress with tolerable chearful- 
ness, tliough in the same sti^eet where they occupy the garrets 
of a house, resides in an elegant hotel a man who was once their 
groom, but Who is know a tribune, and has within these last twelve 
years, as a conventional deputy, amassed, in his mission to Brabant 
and Flanders, twelve millions of livres, 500,000/. He has kindly 
let my friend understand that his youngest daughter might be 
received as a chambermaid to his wife ; being informed that she 
has got a good education. — All the four daughters are good mu- 
sicians, good drawers, and very able at their needles. By their 
talents they supported their parents and themselves, during their 
emigration in Germany ; but here they are of but little use or 
advantage. Those upstarts, who want instruction, or works of this 
sort, apply to the first most reiiowned and fashionable masters 
or mistresses, while others, and those the greatest number, can- 
not afford even to pay the inferior ones, and the most clieap. 
This family is one of the many that regret having returned from 
their emigration. But you may ask, why do they not go back 
again to Germany ? First, it would expose them to suspicion, and 
perhaps to ruin, were they to demand passes ; and if this danger 
or difficulty were removed, they have no money for such a long 
journey. 

' Rr 



306 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

But this sort of penury and wretchedness is also common 
with the faniiiies of the former wealthy merchants and tradesmen. 
Paper money, a maximum, and requisitions, have reduced those 
that did not share in the crimes and pillage of the Revolution, as 
much as the proscribed nobility. And, contradictory as it may 
seem, the number of persons employed in commercial specula- 
tions has more than tripled since we experienced a general stag- 
nation of trade, tlie consequence of war, of want of capitals, pro- 
tection, encouragement, and confidence ; but one of the magazines 
of 1789 contained more goods and merchandize than twenty 
modern magazines put together. The expenses of these new 
merchants is, however, much greater than sixteen years ago, the 
profit less, and the credit still less than the profit. Hence nume- 
rous bankruptcies, frauds, svdndling, forgeries, and other evils of 
immorality, extravagance, and misery. The fair and honest 
dealers suffer most from the intrusion of these infamous specula- 
tors ; who expecting, like other vile men wallowing in wealth, 
under their eyes, to make rapid fortunes, and to escape detection 
as well as punishment, commit crimes to soothe disappointment. 
Nothing is done but for ready money, and even bankers' bills, or 
bills accepted by bankers, are not taken in payment, before the 
signatures are avowed by the parties concerned. You can etisily 
conceive what confusion, what expenses, and what loss of time, 
these precautions must occasion ; but the numerous forgeries and 
fabrications have made them absolutely necessary. 

The farmers and land-holders are better off ; but they also 
complain of the heavy taxes, and low price paid for what they 
bring to the market, which frequently, for want of ready money, 
remains long unsold. They take nothing but cash in payment ; 
for notwithstanding the endeavours of our government, the notes 
of the bank of France have never been in circulation among them. 
They have also been subject to losses by the fluctuation of paper 
money, by extoi'tions, reqviisitions, and by the maximum. In this 
class of my countrymen remains still some little national spirit and 
some independence of character ; but these are far from being 
favourable to Buonaparte, or to the Imperial government, whicli 
the yearly increase of taxes, and, above all, the conscription have 
rendered extremely odious. You may judge of "the great differ- 
ence in the taxation of lands and landed property, now and under 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 307 

eur kings, when I inform you that a friend of mine, who, in 1792, 
possessed, in one of the western departments, twenty-one farms, 
paid less in contribution for them all than he does now for the 
three farms he has recovered from the wreck of his fortune. 



LETTER LXVn. 

Pern, October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

IN a military empire, ruled by a military despot, it is a 
necessary policy that the education of youth should also be mili- 
tary. In all our public schools or prytanees, a boy, from the 
moment of entering, is registered in a company, and regularly 
drilled, exercised, and reviewed, punished for neglect or fault 
according to martial law, and advanced, if displaying genius or 
application. All our private schools, that wish for the protection 
of government, are forced to submit to the same military rules, 
and therefore most of our conscripts, so far from being recruits, 
are fit for any service as soon as put into requisition. The fatal 
effects to the independence of Europe to be dreaded from this 
sole innovation, I apprehend, have too little been considered by 
other nations. A great power, that can without obstacle, and 
with but little expense, in four weeks increase its disposable 
military force from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and 
eighty thousand young men, accustomed to do military duty 
from their youth, must finally become the master of all other or rival 
flowers, and dispose at leisure of empires, kingdoms, principali- 
ties, and republics.— NOTHING can save them, but the adop- 
tion OF similar measures for their preservation as 
have been adopted for their subjugation. 

When I'Etat Militaire for year 13 (a work containing 
the official statement of our military forces) was presented to 
Buonaparte by Berthier, the latter said, " Sire, I lay before your 
^VJajesty the book of the destiny of the world, which your hands 



308 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

direct as the Sovereign guide of the armies of your empire." 
This compliment is a truth, and therefore no flattery. It might 
as justly have been addressed to a Moreau, a Macdonald, a Le- 
courbe, or to any other generals, as to Buonaparte, because a 
superior number of vi^ell disciplined troops, let them be well or 
even indifferently commanded, v^^ill defeat those inferior in num- 
ber. Three to one would even overpower an army of giants. 
Add to it the unity of plans, of dispositions, and of execution, 
which Buonaparte enjoys exclusively over such a great number 
of troops, while ten, or perhaps fifty, will direct or contradict 
every movement of his opponents. I tremble when I meditate 
on Berthier's assertion ; miay I never live to see it realized, and 
to see all hitherto independent nations, prostrated, acknowledge 
that Buonaparte and destiny are the same, and the same 
distributor of good and evil ! 

One of the bad consequences of this our military education 
of youth is a total absence of all religious and moral lessons. 
Arnaud had, last August, the courage to complain of this infa- 
mous neglect in the National Institute : " the youth," said he, 
" receive no other instruction, but lessons to march, to fire, to 
bow, to dance, to sit, to lie, and to impose with a good grace. 
I do not ask for Spartans or Romans, but we want Athenians, 
and our schools are only forming Sybarites." Within twenty- 
four hours afterwards Arnaud was visited by a police-agent, ac- 
companied by two gens-d'armes ; and an order signed by Fouche, 
which condemned him to reside at Orleans, and not to return 
to Paris, without the permission of the government ; a punish- 
ment regarded here as very modhaie, for such an indiscreet 
zeal. 

A schoolmaster at Auteuil, near this capital, of the name 
of Gouron, had a private seminary, organized upon the footing 
of our former colleges. In some few months he was offered more 
pupils than he well could attend to, and his house shortly became 
very fashionable, even for our upstarts, who sent their children 
there hi preference. He wai ordered before Fouche last Christ- 
mas, and commanded to change the hours hitherto employed in 
teaching religion and morals to military exercise and instruction, 
as both more necessary and more salubrious for French youth. 
Having replied that such an alteration was contrary to his plan, 



h 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 309 

and agreement with the parents of his scholars, the minister 
stopped him short, by telling him that he must obey what had 
been prescribed by government, or stand the consequences of 
his refractory spirit. Having consulted with his friends and 
patrons, he divided the hours, and gave half of the time usually 
allotted to religion or morality to the study of military exercise ; 
his pupils, however, remained obstinate, broke the drum, and 
tore and burnt the colours he had bought. As this was not his 
fault, he did not expect any further disturbance, particularly 
after having reported to the police both his obedience and the 
unforeseen result. But, last March, his house was suddenly 
surrounded in the night by gens d'armes, and some police agents 
entered it. All the boys were ordered to dress, and to pack up 
their effects, and to follow the gens-d'armes to sevei'al other 
schools, where the government had placed them, and of which 
their parents would be informed. Gouron, his wife, four ushers 
and six servants, were all arrested, and carried to the police 
office, where Fouche, after reproaching them for their fanatical 
behaviour, as he termed it, told them, as they were so fond of 
teaching religious and moral duties, a suitable situation had been 
provided for them in Cayenne ; where the negroes stood sadly 
in need of their early arrival, for which reason they would all set 
out on that veH^ morning for Rochefort. When Gouron asked 
what was to become of his property, furniture, &c. he was told, 
that his house was intended by government for a preparatory 
school, and would with its contents be purchased, and the amount 
paid him in lands in Cayenne. It is not necessary to say, that 
this example of Imperial justice had the desired effect on all 
other refractory private schoolmasters. 

The parents of Gouron's pupils, have, with a severe repri- 
nnand, been ir^ormed where their sons had been placed, and 
where they would be educated in a manner agreeable to the 
Emperor, who recommended them not to remove them, without 
a prcA'ious notice to the police. A hatter, of the name of Maille, 
however, ordered his son home, because he had been sent to a 
dearer school than the former. In his turn he was carried before 
the police, and, after a short examination of a quarter of an hour, 
was permitted, with his wife and two children, to join their friend 
Gouron at Rochefort, and to settle with him at Cayenne, where 



310 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

lands would also be given him for his property in France. These 
particulars were related to me by a neighbour, whose son had 
for two years previous to this, been under Gouron's care, but 
who was now among those placed out by our government. The 
lx)y's present master, he said, was a man of a notoriously bad 
and immoral character ; but he was intimidated, and weak enough 
to remain contented, preferring no doubt his personal safety to 
the future happiness of his child. In your country, you little 
comprehend what a valuable instrun^ent terror has been in the 
hands of our rulers since the Revolution, and how often fear has 
been mistaken abroad for affection and content. 

All these minutiae and petty vexations*, but great oppressions 
©f petty tyrants, you may easily guess, take up a great deal of 
time, and that, therefore, a minister of police, though the most 
powerful, is also the most occupied of his colleagues. So he 
certainly is, but last year, a new organization of this ministry 
was regulated by Buonaparte; and Fouche was allowed, as 
assistants, four counsellors of state, and an augmentation of sixty- 
four police commissaries. The French empire was then divided 
into four arrondissemmts^ with regard to the general police ; not 
including Paris and its vicinity, inspected by a prefect of police 
under the minister. Of the first of these arrondissements, the 
counsellor of state Real, is a kind of deputy minister; the counsellor 
of state Miot, is the same of the. second ; the counsellor of state 
Pelet de la Lozere, of the third; and the counsellor of state 
Dauchy of the fourth. The secret police agents, formerly called 
efiieSf were also considerably increased. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 51 1 

LETTER LXVm. 

Parisy October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

BEFORE Buonaparte sat out for the Rhine, the Pope's 
Nuncio was, for the Jirst time, publicly rebuked by him, in Ma- 
dame Buonaparte's drawing-room, and ordered loudly to write to 
Rome, and tell his Holiness to think himself fortunate in continu- 
ing to govern the Ecclesiastical States, without interfering with 
the ecclesiastical arrangements that might be thought necessary 
or proper by the government in France. 

Buonaparte's policy is to promote, among the first dignita- 
ries of the Gallican Church, the brothers or relatives of his civil 
or military supporters. Cambaceres's brother, is therefore an 
archbishop and cardinal, and one of Le Brun's, and two of Ber- 
thier's cousins are bishops. As, however, the relatives of these 
senators, ministers, or generals, have, like themselves, figured in 
many bf the scandalous and blasphemous scenes of the Revolu- 
tion, the Pope has sometimes hesitated about sanctioning their 
promotions. This was the case last summer, when General Des- 
soles's brother was transferred from the bishopric of Digne to that 
of Chamberry, and Buonaparte nominated for his successor the 
brother of General MioUis, who was a curate of Brignoles, in the 
diocese of Aix. This curate had not only been one of the first to 
throw up his letters of priesthood at the Jacobin Club at Aix, but 
had also sacrilegiously denied the divinity of the Christian Reli- 
gion, and proposed, in imitation of the Parisian atheists, the wor- 
ship of a Goddess of Reason in a common prostitute with whom 
he lived. The notoriety of these abominations made even his 
parishioners at BrignoUes unwilling to go to church, and to re- 
gard him as their pastor, though several of them had been impri- 
soned, fined, and even transported as fanatics, or as refractory. 

During the negotiation with Cardinal Fesch last yeai', the Pope 
had been promised, among other things, that, for the future, his 
conscience should not be wounded by having presented to him 
for the prelacy any person but those of the purest morals of the 



312 SECRET HIStORY OF THE 

French empire ; and that all his objections should be attended to, 
in case of promotions ; his scruples removed, or his refusal sub- 
mitted to. When Cardinal Fesch demanded his Holiness's Bull 
for the curate MioUis, the Cardinal secretary of state, Gonsalvi, 
shewed no less than twenty acts of apostacy and blasphemy, which 
made him unworthy of such a dignity. To this was replied that, 
having obtained an indulgence in toto for what was past, he was a 
proper subject ; above all, as he had the protection of the Empe- 
ror of the French. The Pope's Nuncio here then addressed him- 
self to our minister of the ecclesiastical department, Portalis, who 
advised him not to speak to Buonaparte of a matter upon which 
his mind had been made tip : he nevertheless demanded an au- 
dience, and it was in consequence of this request that he, in his 
turn, became acquainted. with the new Imperial etiquette, and new 
Imperial jargon towards the representatives of Sovereigns. On 
the same evening, the Nuncio expedited a courier to Rome, and 
I have heard to-day, . that the nomination of MioUis is confirmed 
by the Pope. 

From this relatively trifling occurrence his Holiness might 
judge of the intention of our government, to adhere to its other 
engagements ; but at Rome, as well as in most other continental 
capitals, the Sovereign is the dupe of the perversity of his coun- 
sellors and ministers, who are the tools, and not seldom the pen- 
sioners, of the Cabinet of St. Cloud. 

But, in the kingdom of Italy, the parishes and dioceses are, 
if possible, still worse served than in this country. Some of the 
bishops there, after having done duty in the national guards, worn 
the jacobin cap, and fought against their lawful Prince, now live 
in open adultery ; and, from their intrigues, are the terror of all 
the married part of their flock. The Bishop of Pavia keeps the 
wife of a merchant, by whom he has two children ; and, that the 
public may not be mistaken as to their real father, the merchant 
received a sum of money to establish himself at Brescia, and has 
not seen his wife for these two years past. General Gourion, who 
was last spring in Italy, has assured me that he read the adver- 
tisement of a curate for his concubine, who had eloped with ano- 
ther curate ; and that the police minister at Milan openly licensed 
Women to be the house-keepers of priests. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 31S 

A grand vicar, Sarini, at Bologna, was in 1796 a friar, but 
vclinquished then the convent for the tent, and exchanged the bre- 
viary for the musket. He married a nun of one cloister, from 
whom he procured a divorce in a month, to unite himself with 
an abbess of another, deserted by him in her turn, for the wife of 
an inn-keeper, who robbed and eloped from her husband. Last 
spring he returned to the bosom of the church ; and by making 
our Empress a present of a valuable diamond cross, of which he 
had pillaged the statue of a Madonna, he obtained the dignity of 
a grand vicar, to the grand edification, no doubt, of all those who 
had seen him before the altar, or in the camp ; at the brothel, or 
in the hospital. 

Another grand vicar of the same bishop, in the same city, of 
the name of Rami, has two of his illegitimate children as singing 
boys, in the same cathedral where he officiates as a priest. Their 
mother is dead, but her daughter, by another priest, is now their 
father's mistress. This incestuous commerce is so little conceal- 
ed, that the girl does the honours of the grand vicar's house ; and 
with naivete enough, tells the guests and visitors of her /lafifiiness^ 
in having succeeded her mother. I have this anecdote from an 
officer, who heard her make use of that expression. 

In France, our priests, I fear, are equally as debauched and 
unprincipled ; but, in yielding to their vicious propensities, they 
take care to save the appearance of virtue, and though their guilt 
is the same, the scandal is less. Buonaparte pretends to be se- 
vere against all those ecclesiastics who are accused of any irregu- 
larities, after having made their peace with the church. A curate 
©f Picardy, suspected of gallantry, and another of Normandy, ac- 
cused of inebriety, were last month, without further trial or cere- 
mony than the report of the minister Portalis, delivered over to 
Fouche, who transported them to Cayenne, after they had been 
stripped of their gowns. At the same time, Cardinal Cambaceres, 
and Cardinal Fesch, equally notorious for their excesses, were 
taken no notice of, except that they were laughed at in our court 
circles. 

I am, almost every day, more and more convinced that our 
government is totally indifferent about what becomes of our reli- 
gious establishment, when the present race of priests is extin- 
guished, which in the course of nature must happen in less than 

S s 



314 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

thirty years. Our military system and our military education 
discourage all young men from entering into orders, while, at the 
same time, the army is both more honourable and more profitable 
than the church. Already we want curates, though several have 
been imported from Germany and Spain, and, in some depart- 
ments, four and even six parishes have only one curate to serve 
them all. The bishops exhort, and the parents advise their chil- 
dren to study theology ; but then the law of conscription obliges 
the student of theology, as well as the student of philosophy, to 
march together ; and when onte in the ranks, and accustomed to 
the licentiousness of a military life, they are either unwilling, un- 
fit, or unworthy to return to any thing else. The Pope, with all 
his entreaties, and with all his prayers, was unable to procure an 
exception from the conscription of young men preparing them- 
selves for priesthood. Buonaparte always answered : " Holy Fa- 
ther, were I to consent to your demand, I should soon have an 
army of priests, instead of an army of soldiers." Our Emperor 
is not unacquainted with the real character and spirit of his Fo- 
lunteers. When the Pope represented the danger of religion ex- 
piring in France, for want of priests to officiate at the altars ; he 
was answered, that Buonaparte, at the beginning of his consulate, 
found neither altars nor priests in France ; that if his reign sur- 
vived the latter, the former would always be standing, and survive 
his reign. He trusted that the chief of the Church would pre- 
vent them from being deserted. He assured him that when once 
he had restored the liberties of the seas, and an uninterrupted tran- 
quillity on the Continent, he should attend more, and perhaps en- 
tirely, to the affairs of the Church. He consented, however, that 
the Pope might institute, in the Ecclesiastical States, a seminary 
for two hundred young Frenchmen, whom he would except from 
military conscription. This is the stock from which our church 
establishment is to be supplied ! 



COURT OF ST, CLOUD. 315 



LETTER LXIX. 



Pcm, October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

THE short journey of Count de Haugwitz to Vienna, and 
the long stay of our Imperial Grand Marshal Duroc at Berlin, 
had already caused here many speculations, not quite correspond- 
ing with the views, and perhaps interests of our Court ; when our 
violation of the Prussian territory made our courtiers exclaim, 
" this act proves that the Emperor of the French is in a situation 
to bid defiance to all the world, and therefore no longer courts 
the neutrality of a Prince, whose power is merely artificial ; who 
has indemnities to restore, but no delicacy, no regard to claims." 
Such was the language of those very men, who, a month before, 
declared " that his Prussian Majesty held the balance of peace or 
war in his hands ; that he was in a position in which no Prussian 
Monarch ever was before ; that while his neutrality preserved the 
tranquillity of the North of Germany, the South of Europe would 
soon be indebted to his powerful mediation for the return of 
peace." 

The real cause of this alteration in our courtiers' political 
jargon, has not yet been known ; but, I think it may easily be dis- 
covered without any official publication. Buonaparte had the 
adroitness to cajole the Cabinet of Berlin into his interest, in the 
first month of his consulate, notwithstanding -his own critical 
situation, as well as the critical situation of France ; and he has 
ever since taken care both to attach it to his triumphal car, and to 
inculpate it directly in his outrages and violations. Convinced, as 
he thought, of the selfishness which guided all its resolutions, all 
his attacks and invasions against the law of nations, or independ- 
ence of states, were either preceded or followed with some offers 
of aggrandizement, of indemnity, of subsidy, or of alliance. His 
political intriguers were generally more successful in Prussia than 
his military heroes in crossing the Rhine, or the Elbe, in laying 
the Hanse Towns under contribution, or in occupying Hanover ; 



316 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

or rather all these acts of violence and injustice were merely the 
effects of his ascendancy in Prussia. When it is besides remem- 
bered what provinces Prussia accepted from his bounty, what ex- 
change of presents, of ribands, of private letters passed between 
Napoieone the First, and Frederic William IH, between the Em- 
press of the French and the Queen of Prussia, it is not surprising 
if tlie Cabinet of St. Cloud thought itself sure of the submission of 
tlie Cabinet of Berlin, and did not esteem it enough to fear it ; or 
to think that it would have spirit enough to resent, or even honour 
to feel the numerous provocations offered. 

Whatever Buonaparte and Talleyrand write or assert to the 
contrary, their gifts are only wages of their contempt, and they 
despise more that state they thus reward, than those nations, at 
whose expence they are liberal, and with whose spoil they delude 
selfishness or meanness into their snares. The more legitimate 
Sovereigns descend from their true dignity, and a liberal policy, 
the nearer they approach the baseness of usurpation, and the 
Machiavelism of rebellion. Like other upstarts, they never suffer 
an equal. If you do not keep yourself above them, they will 
crush you beneath them. If they have no reason to fear you, they 
will create some quarrel to destroy you. 

It is said here, that Duroc's journey to Berlin was merely to 
demand a passage for the French troops through the Prussian 
territory in Franconia, and to prevent the Russian troops from 
passing through the Prussian territory in Poland. This request 
is such as might have been expected from our Emperor and his 
minister. Whether, however, the tone in which this curious 
negotiation with a neutral power was began, or that, at last, the 
generosity of the Russian Monarch, awakened a sense of duty in 
the Cabinet of Berlin, the arrival of our pacific envoy was imme- 
diately followed with warlike preparations. Fortunate indeed was 
it for Prussia to have resorted to her military strength, instead of 
trusting any longer to our friendly assurances. The disasters that 
have since befallen the Austrian armies in Suabia, partly occa- 
sioned by our forced marches through neutral Prussia, would 
otherwise soon have been felt in Westphalia, in Brandenburg, and 
in Pomerania, But should his Prussian Majesty not order his 
troops to act in conjunction with Russia, Austria, England, and 
SAveden, and that very soon., all efforts against Buonaparte will be 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 317 

vain ; as those troops which have dispersed the Austi'ians, and 
repulsed the Russians, will be more than equal to master the 
Prussians ; and one campaign may be sufficient to convince the 
Prussian ministers of their folly and errors for years, and to 
punish them for their ignorance or selfishness. 

Some preparations made in silence by the Marquis de 
Lucchesini; his affected absence from some of our late court 
circles ; and the number of spies who now are watching his hotel 
and his steps, seem to indicate, that Prussia is tired of its impolitic 
neutrality, and inclined to join the confederacy against France. 
At the last assembly, at our Prince Cambaceres's, a rumour circu- 
lated, that preliminary articles for an offensive alliance with your 
country, had already been signed by the Prussian minister. 
Baron Hardenberg, on one side, and by your minister to the Court 
of Berlin on the other ; according to which, you were to take sixty 
thousand Prussians, and twelve thousand Hessians into your pay, 
for five years certain. A courier from Duroc, was said to have 
brought this news, which at first made some impression, but it 
wore away by degrees ; and our government, to judge from the 
expressions of persons in its confidence, seems more to court, 
than to fear, a rapture with Prussia. Indeed, besides all other 
reasons to carry on a war in the North of Europe, Buonaparte's 
numerous new and young generals are impatient to enrich them- 
selves; and Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and the South of Germany 
are almost exhausted. 



LETTER LXX. 

Paris^ October 1805. 



MY LORD, 



THE provocations of our government must have been extra- 
ordinary, indeed, when they were able to awaken the Cabinet of 
Berlin from its long and incomprehensible infatuation of trusting 
to the friendly intentions of honest Talleyrand, and to the disin- 
terested policy of our generous Buonaparte. To judge its intents 



318 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

from its acts, the favour of the Cabinet of St. Cloud was not only 
its wish but its want. You must remember, that last year, besides 
his ordinary ambassador, Lucchesini, his Prussian Majesty was 
so ill *advised as to dispatch a General Knobelsdorff as his extra 
representative, to assist at Napoleone's coronation ; a degradation 
of lawful sovereignty, to which even the Court of Naples, though 
surrounded with our troops, refused to subscribe ; and so late as 
last June, the same Knobelsdorff did, in the name of his Prince, 
the honours at the reviews near Magdeburg, to all the generals of 
our army in Hanover, who chose to attend there. On this occa- 
sion the King lodged in a farm-house, the Queen in the house of 
the curate of Koestelith, while our sans-culotte officers, Bernadotte 
and Co. were quartered and treated in style, at the castle of Putz- 
bull, fitted up for their accommodation. This Avas certainly very 
hospitable, and very civile but it was neither prudent nor politic. 
Upstarts experiencing such a reception from Princes, are con- 
vinced that they are dreaded, because they know that they have 
not merit to be esteemed. 

Do not confound this Knobelsdorff with the late field-marshal 
of that name, who, in 1796, answered to a request which our then 
ambassador at Berlin, Abbe Sieyes, had made to be introduced to 
him, NON ET SANS PHRASE, the very words this regicide used 
when he sat in judgment on his king, and voted la mort et 
SANS PHRASE. This Knobelsdorff is a very different character. 
He pretends to be equally conspicuous in the cabinet as in the 
field, in the boudoir as in the study, A demi-philosophcr, a demi- 
savant, a demi-gallant, and a demi-politician, constitute all taken 
together, nothing, except an insignificant courtier. I do not know 
whether he was among those Prussian officers who, in 1798, 
CRIED, when it was inserted in the public prints that the Grand 
Buonaparte had been killed in an insxu'rection at Cairo ; but of 
this I am certain, that were Knobelsdorff to survive Napoleone 
the First, none of his Imperial Majesty's own dutiful subjects 
would mourn him more sincerely than this subject of the King of 
Prussia. He is said to possess a great share of the confidence of 
his King, v/no has already employed him in several diplomatic 
missions. The principal and most requisite qualities in a nego- 
tiator are, political information, inviolable fidelity, a penetrating 
but unbiassed judgment, a dignified firmness, and condescending; 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 319 

manners. I have not been often enough in the society of General 
Knobelsdorffto assert whether nature and education have destined 
him to illumine or to cloud the Prussian monarchy. 

I have already mentioned, in a former letter, that it was 
Count de Haugwitz who, in 1792, as Prussian ambassador at 
Vienna, arranged the treaty which then united the Austrian and 
Pi-ussian Eagles against the Jacobin Cap of Liberty ; it is now 
said in our diplomatic circle, that his second mission to the same 
capital has for an object the renewal of these ties, which the treaty 
of Basle dissolved ; and that our government, to impede his suc- 
cess, or to occasion his recal, before he could have time to con- 
clude, had proposed to Prussia an annual subsidy of thirty millions 
of livres, 1,250,000/. which it intended to exact from Portugal for 
its neutrality. The present respectable appearance of Prussia 
shows, however, that whether the mission of Haugwitz had the 
desired issue or not, his Prussian Majesty confides in his army in 
preference to our parchments. 

Some of our politicians pretend, that the present minister of 
the foreign depaitment in Prussia, Baron de Hardenberg, is not 
such a friend of the system of neutrality as his predecessor. All 
the transactions of his administration seem, nevertheless, to pro- 
claim, that if he wished his country to take an active part in the 
present conflict, it would not have been against France, had she 
not began the attack with the invasion of Anspach and Bareuth. 
Let it be recollected that, since his ministry, Prussia has acknow- 
ledged Buonaparte an Emperor of the French, has exchanged 
orders with him, and has sent an extraordinary ambassador to be 
present at his coronation, — not common compliments even be- 
tween Princes connected by the nearest ties of friendship and con- 
sanguinity. Under his administration, the Rhine has been passed 
to seize, the Duke of Enghien, aud the Elbe, to capture Sir 
George Rumbold ; the Hanse Towns have been pillaged, and even 
Embden blockaded ; and the representations against all these out- 
rages have neither been followed by public reparation or a becom- 
ing resentment : and was it not also Baron de Hardenberg who, on 
the 5th of April 1795, concluded at Basle that treaty to which we 
owe all our conquests, and Germany and Italy all their disasters ? 
It is not probable that the parent of pacification will destroy its 
own progeny, if self-preservation dofes not require it. 



520 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

Baron de Hardenberg is both a learned nobleman and an en- 
lightened statesman, and does equal honour both to his own rank 
and to the choice of his Prince. The late Frederic William H. 
nominated him a minister of state, and a counsellor of his cabinet. 
On the 26th of January 1792, as directorial minister, he took pos- 
session in the name of the King of Prussia, of the Margravates of 
Anspach and Bareuth, and the inhabitants swore before him, as 
their governor, their oaths of allegiance to their new Sovereign. 
He continued to reside, as a kind of viceroy, in these states, until 
March 1795, when he replaced Baron de Goltz as negotiator with 
our republican plenipotentiary in Switzerland; but after settling all 
differences between Prussia and France, he returned to his former 
post at Anspach, where no complaints have been heard against liis 
government. 

The ambition of Baron de Hardenberg has always been to 
obtain the place he now occupies, and the study of his life has 
been to gain such information as would enable him to fill it with 
distinction. I have heard it said that in most countries he had for 
years kept and paid private agents, who regularly corresponded 
with him, and sent him reports of what they heard or saw of politi- 
cal intrigue or machinations. One of these his agents I happened 
to meet with, in 1796, at Basle, and were I to conclude from what 
I observed in him, the minister has not been very judicious in his 
selection of private correspondents. Figure to yourself a bald- 
headed personage, about forty years of age, near seven feet high, 
deaf as a post, stammering and making convulsive efforts to ex- 
press a sentence of five words, which, after all, his gibberish made 
unintelligible. His di'ess was as eccentric as his person was sin- 
gular, and his manners corresponded with both. He called him- 
self Baron de Bulow, and I saw him afterwards, in the autumn of 
1797, at Paris, with the same accoutrements, and the same jargon, 
assuming an air of diplomatic mystery, even while displaying be- 
fore me, in a coffee-house, his letters and instructions from his 
principal. As might be expected, he had the adroitness to get 
himself shut up in the Temple, where I have been told, the gene- 
rosity of your Sir Sidney Smith prevented him from starving. 

No member of the foreign diplomatic corps here possesses 
either more knowledge, or a longer experience, than the Prussian 
ambassador, Marquis de Lucchesini. He went, with several other 



COURT OP ST. CLOUD. 321 

'^hitoso/ihers of Italy, to admire the late hero of modern philosophy 
at Berlin, Frederic the Great, who received him well, caressed 
him often, but never trusted or employed him. I suppose it vi^as 
not at the mention of the Marquis's name, for the place of a go- 
vernor of some province, that this monarch said, " My subjects of 
that province have always been dutiful ; a philosopher shall never 
.rule in my name, but over people with whom I am discontented, 
or whom I intend to chastise." This prince was not unacquainted 
with the morality of his sectaries. 

During- the latter part of the life of this king, the Marquis de 
Lucchesini was frequently of his literary and convivial parties; but 
he was neither his friend nor his favourite, but his listener. It was 
first under Frederic William II that he began his diplomatic ca- 
reer, with an appointment as minister from Prussia to the late 
King of Poland. His first act, in this post, was a treaty signed on 
the 29th March 1790, with the King and Republic of Poland, 
which changed an elective monarchy into an hereditary one ; but 
notwithstanding the Cabinet of Berlin had guaranteed this altera- 
tion, and the constitution decreed in consequence in 179 1 ; three 
years afterwards, Russian and Prussian bayonets annihilated both, 
and selfishness banished faith. 

In July 1790, he assisted as a Prussian plenipotentiary at the 
conferences at Reichenbach, together with the English and 
Dutch ambassadors, having for object a pacification between 
Austria and Turkey. In December of the same year, he went with 
the same ministers to the Congress at Sistow, where, in May 
1791, he signed the treaty of peace between the Grand Seignor 
and the Emperor of Germany. In June 1792, he was a second 
time sent as a minister to Warsaw, where he remained until Ja- 
nuary 1793, when he was promoted to the post of ambassador at 
the Court of Vienna. He continued, however, to reside with his 
Prussian Majesty during the greatest part of the campaign on the 
Rhine, and signed, on the 24th of June 1793, in the camp before 
Mentz, an offensive and defensive alliance with your Court; an 
alliance which Prussian policy respected not above eighteen 
Tnonths. In October 1796, he requested his recal; but this his 
Sovereign refused, with the most gracious expressions ; and h'e" 
could not obtain it until March 1797. Some disapprobation of the 
new political plan introduced by Count de Haugwitz, in the Cabi- 

T T 



522 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

net at Berlin is supposed to have occasioned his determination to- 
retire from public employment. As he, however, continued to re- 
side in the capital of Prussia, and, as many believed, secretly in- 
trigued to appear again upon the scene, the nomination in 1800 
to his present important post was as much the consequence of his 
own desire as of the favour of his King. 

The Marquis de Lucchesini lives here in great style, at the 
beautiful hotel de l^Infantado, where his lady's routes, assemblies, 
and circles, are the resort of our most fashionable gentry. Ma- 
dame de Lucchesini is more agreeable than handsome, more fit 
to shine at Berlin than at Paris ; for though her manners are 
elegant, they want that ease, that finish, which a German or 
Italian education cannot teach, nor a German or Italian society 
confer. To judge from the number of her admirers, she seems 
to know that she is married to a philosopher. Her husband was 
born at Lucca in Italy, and is therefore at present a subject of 
Buonaparte's brother-in-law, Prince Bacchiochi, to whom, when 
his Serene Highness was a marker at a billiard-table, I have had 
the honour of giving many a shilling, as well as many a box on 
the ear. 



LETTER LXXI. 

Pm-is, October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

THE unexampled cruelty of our government to your coun- 
tryman. Captain Wright, I have heard reprobated even by some 
of our generals, and public functionaries, as unjust as well as dis- 
graceful. At a future General Congress, should ever Buonaparte 
suffer one to be convoked, except under his auspices and dicta- 
ture, the distinction and treatment of prisoners of war require to 
be again regulated; that the valiant warrior may not for the future 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 323 

be confounded with, and treated as a treacherous spy, nor innocent 
travellers provided with regular passes, visiting a country either 
for business or for pleasure, be imprisoned, like men taken while 
combating with arms in their hands. 

You remember, no doubt, from histor}"^, that many of our 
ships, during the reigns of George the First and Second, carried 
to Ireland and Scotland, and landed there, the adherents and par- 
tisans of the Hovise of Stuait, and were captured on their return 
or on their passage ; and that your government never seized the 
commanders of these vessels, to confine them as state criminals, 
and much less to torture or murder them in the Tower. If I am 
not mistaken, the whole squadron which, in 1745, carried the 
Pretender and his suite to Scotland, was taken by your cruizers ; 
and the officers and men experienced no worse or different treat- 
Tnent than tlieir fellow prisoners of war ; though the distance is 
immense between the crime of plotting against the lawful govern- 
ment of the Princes of the House of Brunswick, and the attempt 
to disturb the usurpation of an upstart of the House of Buona- 
parte. But even during the last war, how many of our ships of 
the line, frigates and cutters, did you not take, which had landed 
rebels in Ireland, emissaries in Scotland, and malefactors in 
Wales J and yet your generosity prevented you from retaliating, 
even at the time when your Sir Sidney Smith and this same un- 
fortunate Captain Wright were confined in our state prison of the 
Temple ! It is with governments as with individuals ; they ought 
to be just before they are generous. Had you in 1797, or in 1798, 
not endured our outrages so patiently, you would not now have to 
lament, nor we to blush for, the untimely end of Captain Wright. 
From the last time that this officer had appeared before the 
-criminal tribunal which condemned Georges and Moreau, his fate 
was determined on by our government. His firmness offended, 
and his patriotism displeased ; and as he seemed to possess the 
confidence of his own government, it was judged that he was in its 
secrets ; it was therefore resolved, that if he refused to become a 
traitor, he should perish a victim. Desraarets, Fouche's private 
secretary, who is also the secretary of the secret and haute police, 
therefore ordered him to another private interrogatory. Here he 
was offered a considerable sum of money, and the rank of an ad- 
miral in our service, if he would divulge what he knew of the 



324 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

plans of his government, of its connexions with the discontented 
in this country, and of its means of keeping up a correspondence 
■with them. He replied, as might have been expected, with in- 
dignation to such offers and to such proposals ; but as they were 
frequently repeated, with new allurements, he concluded Avith re- 
mainmg silent, aud giving no answer at all. He was then told 
that the torture should soon restore him his voice ; and some se- 
lect gens-d'armes seized him, and laid him on the rack : there he 
uttered no complaint, not even a sigh, though instruments the 
most diabolical were employed, and pains the most acute must 
have been endured. When threatened tliat he should expire in 
torments, he said, " I do not fear to die, because my country will 
avenge my murder, while my God receives my soul." During 
the two hours of the first day that he was stretched on the rack 
his left arm and right leg were broken, and his nails torn frorai 
the toes of both his feet ; he then passed into the hands of a sur- 
geon, and was under his care for five weeks, but, before he was 
perfectly cured, he was carried to another private interrogatory, 
at which, besides Desmarets, Fouche and Real were present. 

The ministei' of police now informed him that, from the mu- 
tilated state of his body, and from the sufferings he had gone 
through, he must be convinced that it was not the intention of the 
French government ever to restore him to his native country, 
where he might relate occurrences which the policy of France re- 
quired to be buried in oblivion ; he therefore had no choice be- 
tween serving the Emperor of the French or perishing within the 
walls of the prison where he was confined. He replied, that he 
was resigned to his destiny, and would die as he had lived, faithful 
to his King and to his country. 

The man in the full possession of his mental qualities, and 
corporeal strength, is, in most cases, very different from that un- 
fortunate being, whose mind is enervated by sufferings, and whose 
body is weakened by wants. For five months. Captain Wright 
had seen only gaolers, spies, tyrants, executioners, fetters, racks, 
and other tortures ; and for five weeks his food had been bread, and 
his drink water. The man who, thus situated, and thus perplexed, 
preserves his native dignity and innate sentiments, is more worthy 
of monuments, statues, or altars, than either the legislator, the 
■victor, or the saint. . 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 325 

This interrogatory was the last undergone by Captain Wright. 
He was then agdn stretched on the rack ; and what is called by 
-our regenerators the infernal torments were inflicted on him. 
After being pinched with red-hot irons, all over his body, brandy 
mixed with gunpowder was infused in the numerous wounds, and 
set fire to several times, until nearly burned to the bones. In the 
convulsions, the consequence of these terrible sufferings, he is 
said to have bit off a part of his tongue ; though, as before, no 
groans were heard. As life still remained, he was again put un- 
der the care of his former surgeon ; but as he was exceedingly 
exhausted, a spy, in the dress of a protestant clergyman, presented 
himself, as if to read prayers with him. Of this offer he accepted ; 
but, when this man began to make some insidious questions, he 
cast on him a look of contempt, and never spoke to him more. 
At last, seeing no means to obtain any information from him, a 
Mameluke last week strangled him in his bed. Thus expired a 
hero, whose fate has excited more compassion, and whose charac- 
ter has received more admiration here, than any of our great men 
who have fallen fighting for our Emperor, Captain Wright has 
diffused new rays of renown and glory on the British name, from 
his tomb, as well as from his dungeon. 

You have certainly a right to call me to an account for all the 
particulars I have I'elated of this scandalous and abominable trans- 
action ; and though I cannot absolutely guarantee the truth of the 
narration, I am perfectly satisfied of it myself, and I hope to ex- 
plain myself to your satisfaction. Your unfortunate countryman 
was attended by, and under the care of a surgeon of the name of 
Vaugeard, who gained his confidence, and was worthy of it, though 
employed in that infamous gaol. Either from disgust of life, or 
from attachment to Captain Wright, he survived him only twelve 
hours; during which he wrote the shocking details I have given 
you, and sent them to three of the members of the foreign diplo- 
matic corps, with a prayer to have them forwarded to Sir Sidney 
Smith, or to Mr. Windham ; that those his friends might be in- 
formed, that, to his last moment, Captain Wright was worthy of 
their protection and kindness. From one of those ministers, I 
.have obtained the oi'iginal, in Vaugeard's own hand-writing. 

I know that Buonaparte and Talleyrand promised the release 
of Captain Wright to the Spanish ambassador ; but at that time, 



S2e SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

he had already suffered once on the rack, and this liberality on 
their part was merely a trick to impose upon the credulity of the 
Spaniard, or to get rid of his importunities. Had it been other- 
wise. Captain Wright, like Sir George Rumbold, would himself 
have been the first to announce in your country the recovery of 
his liberty. 



LETTER LXXH. 

Farisj October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

SHOULD Buonaparte again return here victorious, and a 
pacificator, great changes in our internal government and consti- 
tution are expected, and will certainly occur. Since the legisla- 
tive corps has completed the Napoleone code of civil and criminal 
justice, it is considered by the Emperor not only as useless, but 
troublesome and superfluous. For the same reasons the tribunate 
will also be laid aside, and his majesty will rule the French 
empire with the assistance of his senate, and with the advice of 
his council of state, exclusively. You know, that the senators, 
as well as the counsellors of state, are nominated by the Emperorj 
that he changes the latter according to his whim; and that, 
though the former, according to the present constitution, are to 
hold their offices for life, the alterations which remove entirely 
the legislature, and the tribunate, may also make senators move- 
able. But as all members of the senate are favourites or relatives, 
he will probably not think it necessary to resort to such a ineasure 
of policy. 

In a former letter I have already mentioned the heteroge- 
neous composition of the senate. The tribunate and legislative 
corps are worthy to figure by its side. Their members are also 
ci-devant mechanics of all descriptions, debased attornies, or 
• apostate priests, national spoilers or rebellious regicides, degraded 



COURT OF ST. CLOUB. 327 

nobles or dishonoured officers. The nearly unanimous vote of 
these corps, for a Consulate for life, and for an hereditaiy Em- 
peror, cannot, therefore, either be expressive of the national "will, 
or constitute the legality of Buonaparte's Sovereignty. 

In the legislature no vote opposed and no voice declaimed 
against Buonaparte's Imperial dignity : but, in the tribunate, Car- 
not, the infamously notorious Carnob, pro foivnd, and Avith the 
permission of the Emperor in petto, spoke against the return of 
a monarchical form of government. This farce of deception and 
roguery did not impose even on our good Parisians, otherwise, 
and so frequently the dupes of all our political and revolutionary 
mountebanks. Had Carnot expressed a sentiment, or used a 
word, not previously approved by Buonaparte, instead of reposing 
himself in the tribunate, he would have been v^'andering in 
Cayenne. 

Son of an obscure attorney at Nolay in Burgundy, he was 
brought up, like Buonaparte, in one of those military schools 
established by the munificence of the French monarchs ; and had 
obtained from the late King, the commission of a captain of en- 
gineers, when the Revolution broke out. He was particularly 
indebted to the prince of Cbnde for his support during the earlier 
part of his life ; and yet he joined the enemies of his House, and 
voted for the de^th of Louis XVI, A member, with Robespierre 
and Barrere, of the committee of public safety, he partook of their 
power, as welt as of their crimes ; though he has been audacious 
enough to deny that he had any thing to do with other transac- 
tions than those of the armies. Were no other proofs to the 
contrary collected, a letter of his oAvn hand to the ferocious Lebon,, 
at Arras, is a written evidence which he is unable to refute. It 
is dated November 16th, 1793. " You must take," says he, " in 
your energy, all measures of terror commanded or required by 
present circumstances. Continue your revolutionary attitude;, 
never mind the amnesty pronounced with the acceptance of the 
absurd constitution of 1791 : it is a crime which cannot extenuate 
other crimes. Anti-republicans can only expiate their folly under 
the axe of the guillotine. The public treasure will always pay 
the joumeys and expenses of informers, because they have 
deserved well of their country. Let all suspected traitors expire 
by the sword or by fire ; continue to march upon that revolu- 



328 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

tionary line so well delineated by you. The committee applauds 
all your undertakings, all your measures of vigour ; they are not 
only all permitted, but commanded by your mission."— Most 
of the decrees concerning the establisments of revolutionary tri- 
bunals, and particularly that for the organization of the atrocious 
military commission at Orange, were signed by him. 

Carnot, as an officer of engineers, certainly is not without 
talents ; but his presumption in declaring himself the sole author 
of those plans of campaigns, which, during the years 1794, 1795, 
and 1796, were so triumphantly executed by a Pichegru, Moreau, 
and Buonaparte, is impertinent, as well as unfounded. At the 
risk of his own life, Pichegru entirely altered the plan sent him 
by the committee of public safety ; and it was Moreau's masterly 
retreat, which no plan of campaign could prescribe, that made 
this General so famous. The surprising successes of Buonaparte 
in Italy were both unexpected and unforeseen by the Directory ; 
and, according to Berthier's assertion, obliged the commander 
in chief, during the first four months, to change five times his 
plans of proceedings and undertakings. 

During his temporary sovereignty as a Director, Carnot 
honestly has made a fortune of twelve millions of livres, 500,000/.; 
which has enabled him not only to live in style with his wife, but 
also to keep in style two sisters of the name of Aublin, as his 
mistresses. He was the friend of the father of these girls, and 
promised him, when condemned to the guillotine in 1793, to be 
their second father; but he debauched and ruined them both, 
before either was fourteen years of age : and young Aublin, who 
in 1796 reproached him with the infamy of his conduct, was 
delivered up by him to a military commission, which condemned 
him to be shot as an emigrant. He has two children by each of 
these unfortunate girls. 

Buonaparte employs Carnot, but despises and mistrusts him; 
being well aware that, should another National Convention be 
c,onvoked, and the Emperor of the French be arraigned, as the 
King of France was, he would, with as great pleasure vote for 
the execution of Napoleone the First as he did for that of Louis 
XVI. He has waded too far in blood and crimes to retrograde. 

To this sample of a modern tribune I will add a specimen of 
a modem legislator. Baptiste Cavaignac was, before the Revolu- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 329 

tion, an excise-officer, turned out of his place for infidelity ; but 
the department of Lot electing him, in 1792, a representative of 
the people to the National Convention, he there voted for the 
death of Louis XVI, and remained a faithful associate of Murat 
and Robespierre. After the evacuation of Verdun by the Prus- 
sians, in October 1792, he made a report to the Convention, ac- 
cording to w^hich eighty-four citizens of that tov^n were arrested 
and executed. Among these were twenty-two young girls, under 
twenty years of age, whose crime was the having presented nose- 
gays to the late King of Prussia, on his entry after the surrender 
of Verdun. He was afterwards a national commisary with the 
armies on the coast, near Brest, on the Rhine, and in the Western 
Pyrenees, and every where he signalized himself by unheard-of 
ferocities and sanguinary deeds. The following anecdote, printed 
and published by our revolutionaiy annalist, Prudhomme, will 
give you some idea of the morality of this our regenerator and 
Imperial Solon. " Cavaignac and another deputy, Pinet," writes 
Prudhomme, " had ordered a box to be kept for them at the play- 
house, at Bayonne, on the evening they expected to arrive in that 
town. Entering very late, they found two soldiers, who had seen 
the box empty, placed in its front. These they ordered imme- 
diately to be arrested, and condemned them, for having outraged 
the national representation, to be guillotined on the next day, 
when they both were accordingly executed ! Labarrere, a provost 
of the Marechaussee at Dax, was in prison as a suspected person. 
His daughter, a very handsome girl, of seventeen, lived with an 
aunt at St. Severe. The two proconsuls passing through that 
place, she threw herself at their feet, imploring mercy for her 
parent. This they not only promised, but offered her a place in 
their carriage to Dax, that she might see him restored to liberty. 
On the road the monsters insisted on a ransom for the blood of 
her father. Waiting, afflicted and ashamed, at a friend's house 
at Dax, the accomplishment of a promise so dearly purchased, 
she heard the beating of the alarm drum, and looked, fi'om curi- 
osity, through the window, when she saw her unfortunate parent 
ascending the scaffold ! After having remained lifeless for half an 
hour, she recovered her senses an instant, when she exclaimed, 
" Oh, the barbarians ! they violated me, while flattering me with 
the hope of saving my father 1" and then expired. In October 

Uu 



330 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

1795 he assisted Barras and Buonaparte in the destruction of some 
thousands of men, women, and children, in the streets of this 
capital, and was therefore, in 1798, made by the Directory an 
inspector-general of the customs; and, in 1803, nominated by 
Buonaparte a legislator. The colleague of CaA'aignac, Citizen 
Pinet is now one of our Emperor's counsellors of state ; and both 
are commanders of his Majesty's Legion of Honour; rich., res/iected, 
^nd frequented by our most fashionable ladies and gentlemen. 



LETTER LXXHL 

Parisy October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

I SUPPOSE your government too vigilant and too patriotic, 
not to be informed of the great and uninterrupted activity which 
teigns in our arsenals, dock-yards, and sea-ports. I have seen a 
plan, according to which Buonaparte is enabled, and intends, to 
build twenty ships of the Ime, and ten frigates, besides cutters, in 
the year, for ten years to come. I read the calculation of the ex- 
penses, the names of the forests where the timber is to be cut, of the 
foreign countries where a part of the necessary materials are al- 
ready engaged, and of our own departments which are to furnish 
the remainder. The whole has been drawn up in a precise and 
clear mannner by Buonaparte's maritime prefect at Antwerp, 
M. Malouet, well known in your country, where he long remain- 
ed as an emigrant, and I believe was even employed by your mi- 
nisters. 

You may perhaps smile at this vast naval scheme of Buona- 
parte ; but if you consider that he is the master of all the forests, 
mines, and prodections of France, Italy, and of a great part of 
Germany, with all the navigable rivers and sea-ports of these 
countries, and Holland, and remember also the character of the 
man, you will perhaps think it less impracticable. The greatest 
obstacle he has to encounter and to remove, is want of experi- 
enced naval officers, though even in this he has advanced greatly 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 331 

since the present war ; during which he has added to his navat 
forces t\^enty-nine ships of the line, thirty-four frigates, twenty- 
one cutters, three thousand praams, gun-boats, pinnaces, &c. with 
four thousand naval officers, and thirty-seven thousand sailors, ac- 
cording to the same account, signed by Malouet. It is true, that 
most of our new naval heroes have never ventured far from our 
qoast, and all their naval laurels have been gathered under our 
land batteries; but the impulse is given to the national spirit, and 
our conscripts in the mai'itime departments prefer, to a man, the 
navy to the army, which was not formerly the case. 

It cannot have escaped your observation that the incorpora- 
tion of Genoa procured us, in the south of our empire, a naval 
station and arsenal, as a counterpoise to Antwerp, our new naval 
station in the north, where twelve ships of the line have been 
built, or are building, since 1 803, and where timber and other ma- 
terials are collected for eight more. At Genoa two ships of the 
line and four frigates have lately been launched, and four ships 
and two frigates are on the stocks ; and the Genoese Republic 
has added sixteen thousand seafaring men to our navy. Should 
Buonaparte terniinate successfully the present war, Naples and 
Venice will increase the number of our sea-ports and resources 
on the borders of the IMediterranean and Adriatic seas. All his 
courtiers say that he will conquer Italy in Germany, and deter- 
mine at Vienna the fate of London. 

Of all our admirals, however, we have not one to compare 
with your Nelson, your Hood, your St. Vincent, and your Corn- 
wallis. By the appointment of Murat as gi^and admiral, Buona- 
parte seems to indicate that he is inclined to imitate the example 
of Louis XVI, in the beginning of his reign, and entrust the chief 
command of his jBeets and squadrons to military men, of approved 
capacity and courage, officers of his land troops. Last June, 
when he expected a probable junction of the fleet under Ville- 
neuve with the squadron under Admiral Winter^ and the union 
of both with Gantheaume, at Brest, Murat was to have had the 
chief command of the united French, Spanish, and Batavian fleets, 
and to support the landing of our troops in your country ; but 
the arrival of Lord Nelson in the West Indies, and the victory of 
Admiral Calder, deranged all our plans, and postponed all our de- 



332 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

signs, which the continental war has interrupted, to be commenced, 
God knows when. 

The best amongst our bad admirals is certainly Truguet, but 
he was disgraced last year, and exiled twenty leagues from the coast, 
for having declared too publicly, " that our flotillas would never 
be serviceable before our fieets were superior to yoursj ivhen they 
would become useless." An intriguer by long habit, and by charac- 
ter, having neither property nor principles, he joined the Revolu- 
tion, and was the second in command under Latouche, in the first 
republican fleet that left our harbours. He directed the expedi- 
tion against Sardinia, in January 1793, during which he acquired 
neither honour nor glory, being repulsed with great loss by the 
inhabitants. After being imprisoned under Robespierre, the Di- 
rectory made him a minister of the marine, an ambassador to 
Spain, and a vice-admiral of France. In this capacity he com- 
manded at Brest, during the first eighteen months of the present 
war. He has an irreconcilable foe in Talleyrand, with whom he 
quarrelled when on his embassy in Spain, about some extortions 
at Madrid, which he declined to share with his principal at Paris. 
Such was our minister's inveteracy against him in 1798, that a 
directorial decree placed him on the list of emigrants, because he 
remained in Spain after having been recalled to France. In 1799, 
during Talleyrand's disgrace, Truguet returned here, and after 
in vain challenging his enemy to fight, caned him in the Luxem- 
burgh gardens, a chastisement which our premier bore with a 
true Christian patience. Truguet is not even a member of the 
Legion of Honour. 

Villeneuve is supposed not much inferior in talents, experi- 
ence, and modesty^ to Truguet. He was before the Revolution a 
lieutenant of the royal navy ; but his principles did not prevent 
him from deserting to the colours of the enemies of royalty, who 
promoted him first to a captain, and afterwards to an admiral. 
His first command as such was over a division of the Toulon fleet, 
which in the winter of 1797 entered Brest. In the battle at Abou- 
kir he was the second in command ; and after the death of admi- 
ral Brueys, he rallied the ships which had escaped, and sailed for 
Malta, where, two years afterwards, he signed with General Vau- 
bois the capitulation of that island. When hostilities again broke 
out, he commanded in the West Indies, and, leaving his station, 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 333 

escaped your cruizers, and was appointed first to the chief com- 
mand of the Rochefort, and afterwards of the Toulon fleet, on the 
death of Admiral Latouche. Notwithstanding^ the gasconade of 
his report of his negative victory over Admiral Calder, Villeneuve 
is not a Gascon by birth, but only by sentiment. • i 

Gantheaume does not possess either the intriguing charac- 
ter of Trugviet, or the valorous one of Villeneuve ; before the Re- 
volution, he was a mate of a merchantman ; but when most of the 
officers of the former royal navy had emigrated or perished, he 
was in 1793 made a captain of the republican navy, and in 1796 
an admiral. During the battle of Aboukir he was the chief of the 
staff, under Admiral Brueys, and saved himself by swimming, when 
rOrient took- fire and blew up. Buonaparte wrote to him on this 
occasion : " The picture you have sent me of the disastar of 
rOrient, and of your own dreadful situation, is horrible ; but be 
assured that, having such a miraculous escape, destiny intends 
you to avenge one day our navy and our friends." This note was 
written in August 1798, shortly after Buonaparte had professed 
himself a Mussulman. , ; 

When, in the summer of 1799, our genei^al in chief had de- 
termined to leave his army of Egypt to its destiny, Gantheaume 
equipped and commanded the squadron of frigates which brought 
him to Europe, £tnd was, after his consulate, appointed a counsel- 
lor of state, and commander at Brest. In 1800, he escaped with 
a division of the Brest fleet to Toulon ; and, in the summer of 
1801, when he was ordered to carry succours to Egypt, your ship 
Swiftsure fell in with him, and was captured. As he did not, 
however, succeed in landing in Egypt the troops on board his 
ships, a temporary disgrace was incurred, and he was deprived of 
the command, but made a maritime prefect. Last year favour 
was restored him, with the command of our naval forces at Brest. 
All officers who have served under Gantheaume agree that, let 
his fleet be ever so superior, he will never fight if he can avoid it, 
and that, in orderly times, his cafiacity would at the utmost make 
him regarded as a good master of a merchantman, and nothing 
else. 

Of the present commander of our flotilla at Boulogne, La 
Crosse, I will also say some few words. A lieutenant before the 
Revolution, he became in 1789 one of the most ardent and violent 



334 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

jacobins; and in 1792 was employed hy the friend of the blacks^ 
and our minister, Monge, as an emissary in the West Indies, to 
preach there to the negroes the rights of man, and insurrection 
against the whites, their masters. In 1 800, Buonaparte advanced 
Jhim to a captain-general at Gaudaloupe, an island which his 
plots, eight years before, had involved in all the horrors of anar- 
chy ; and where, now when he attempted to restore order, his 
former instruments rose against him, and forced him to escape 
to one of 5'our islands, I believe Dominico. Of this island, in re- 
turn for his hospitable reception, he took plans, according to 
which our General La Grange endeavoured to conquer it last 
spring. La Crosse is a perfect revolutionary fanatic, unprinci- 
pled, cruel, unfeeling and intolerant. His presumption is great, 
but his talents are trifling. 



LETTER LXXIV. 



Paris, October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

THE defeat of the Austrians has excited great satisfaction 
among our courtiers and public functionaries ; but the mass of the 
inhabitants here are too miserable to feel for any thing else but 
their own sufferings. They kno\v very well that every victory 
rivets their fettei's, that no disasters can make them more heavy, 
and no triumph lighter. Totally indifferent about external occur- 
rences as well as about internal oppressions, they strive to forget 
both the past and the present, and to be indifferent as to the future ; 
they would be glad could they cease to feel that they exist. The 
police officers were now with their gens-d'armes, bayonetting them 
into illuminations, for Buonaparte's successes ; as they dragooned 
them last year, into rejoicings for his coronation. I never ob- 
served before so much apathy ; and, in more than one place, I 
heard the people say, " Oh ! how much better Ave should be with 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 335 

fewer victories, and more tranquillity; with less splendor and 
more security ; with an honest peace instead of a brilliant war." 
But in a country groaning under a military government, the opi- 
nions of the people are counted for nothing. 

At Madame Joseph Buonaparte's circle, however, the coun- 
tenances were not so gloomy. There, a real or affected joy seemed 
to enliven the usual dulness of these parties; some actors were 
repeating patriotic verses in honour of the victor ; while others 
were singing airs or vaudevilles, to inspire our warriors with as 
much hatred towards your nation, as gratitude towards our Em- 
peror. It is certainly neithev fiMoso/iMcal \-\ov fihilanthropical, not 
to exclude the vilest of all passions, hatred, on such an happy 
occasion. Martin, in the dress of a conscfipt, sung six long 
couplets against the tyrants of the seas; of which I was only able 
to retain the following one : 

Je deteste le peuple Anglais, 
Je deteste son ministere ; 
J'aime I'Empereur des Fran9ais, 
J'aime la paix, je hais la guerre ; 
Mais puisqu'il faut la soutenir 
Contre une JVation Sauvage 
Mon plus doux, mon plus grand desir 
Est de monti'er tout mon courage. 

But what arrested my attention more than any thing else 
which occurred in this circle on that evening, was a printed paper 
mysteriously handed about, and of which, thanks to the civility of 
a counsellor of state, I at last got a sight. It was a list of those 
persons, of different countries, whom the Emperor of the French 
has^axd upon, to replace all the ancient dynasties of Europe within 
twenty years to come. From the names of these individuals, some 
of whom are known to me, I could perceive, that Buonaparte had 
more difficulty to select proper Emperors, Kings, and ElectorSf 
than he would have had some years ago, to choose directors or 
consuls. Our inconsistency is, however, evident even here ; I did 
not read a name, that is not found in the annals of jacobinism and 
republicanism. We have, at the same time, taken care not to 
forget ourselves in this new distribution 'oi supremacy. France is 



336 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

to furnish the stock of the new dynasties for Austria, Engljmd, 
Spain, Denmark, and Sweden. What would you think, were you 
to awake one morning the subject of King Arthur O'Connor the 
First? you would, I dare say, be even move surprised than I am, 
In being the subject of Napoleone Buonaparte the First. You know, 
I suppose, that O'Connor is a general of division, and a commander 
of the Legion of Honour ; the bosom friend of Talleyrand, and 
courting, at this moment, a young lady, a relation of our Empress, 
whose portion may one day be ani empire. But I am told that, 
notwithstanding Talleyrand's recommendations, and the approba 
tion of her Majesty, the lady prefers a colonel, her own country- 
man, to the Irish general. Should, however, our Emperor an- 
nounce his determination, she would be obliged to marry as he 
conmiands, were he even to give her his groom, or his horse, 
for a spouse. 

You can form no idea how wretched and despised all the Irish 
rebels are here; O'Connor alone is an exception; and this he 
owes to Talleyrand, to General Valence, and to Madame Genlis ; 
but even he is looked on with a sneer, and, if he ever was respect- 
ed in England, must endure with poignancy the contempt to which 
he is frequently exposed in France. When 1 was in your country. 
I often heard it said that the Irish were generally considered as a 
debased and perfidious people, extremely addicted to profligacy, 
and drunkenness, and when once drunk, more cruelly ferocious 
than even oxir jacobins. I thought it then, and I still believe it, a 
Balional prejudice, because I am convinced that the vices or vir- 
tues of all civilized nations are relatively the same ; but those Irish 
I'ebels we have seen here, and who must be like our jacobins, the 
very dregs of their country, have conducted themselves so as to 
inspire not only mistrust but abhorrence. It is also an undeniable 
truth, that tliey were greatly disappointed by our former ahd pre- 
sent government. They expected to enjoy liberty and equality, 
^nd a pension for their treachery ; but our police commissaries 
caught them at their landing, our gens-d'armes escorted them as 
criminals to their place of destination, and there they received 
just enough to prevent them from starving. If they complained, 
they were put in irons, and if they attempted to escape, they were 
sent to the galleys as malefactors, or shot as spies. Despair, there- 
fore, no doubt induced many to perpetrate acts, of which they 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. S3T 

were accused, and to rob, swindle, and murder, because they were 
punished as thieves and assassins. But some of them, who have 
been treated in the most friendly, hospitable, and generous man- 
ner in this capital, have proved themselves ungrateful, as well as 
infamous. A lady of my acquaintance, of a once large fortune, 
had nothing left but some furniture, and her subsistence depended 
upon what she got by letting furnished lodgings. Mischance 
brought three young Irishmen to her house, who pretended to be 
in daily expectation of remittances from their country, and of a 
pension from Buonaparte. During six months she not only lodged 
and supported them,but embarrassed herself to procure them linen 
and decent apparel. At last she was informed that each of them 
had been allowed sixty livres in the month, 2/. 10s. and that ar- 
rears had been paid them for nine months. Their debt to her 
was above three thousand livres, 125/. but the day after she asked 
for payment, they decamped, and one of them persuaded her 
daughter, a girl of fourteen, to elope with him, and to assist him 
in robbing her mother of all her plate. He has indeed been since 
arrested, and sentenced to the galleys for eight years ; but this 
punishment neither restored the daughter her virtue, nor the mo- 
ther her property. The other two denied their debts, and as she 
had no other evidence but her own scraps of accounts, they could 
not be forced to pay ; their obdurate effrontery and infamy, how- 
ever, excited such an indignation in the judges, that they deliver- 
ed them over as swindlers to the Tribunal Correctional; and the 
minister of police ordered them to be transported as rogues and 
vagabonds to the colonies. The daughter died shortly after in 
consequence of a miscarriage, and the mother did not survive her 
more than a month, and ended her days in the Hotel Dieu, one of 
our common hospitals. Thus these depraved young men ruined 
and murdered their benefactress, and her child; and displayed 
before they were thirty, such consummate villany, as few wretches, 
grown hoary in vice, have perpetrated. This act of scandalous 
notoriety injured the Irish reputation very much in this country; 
for here, as in many other places, inconsiderate people are apt to 
judge a whole nation according to the behaviour of some few of 
its outcasts, 

X X 



33§ SECRET HISTORY OF THE 



LETTER LXXV. 

Parisy October 1805. 
Mi" LOB-Bj 

THE plan of the campaign of the Austrians is incomprehen- 
sible to all our military men ; not on account of its profundity, but 
on account of its absurdity or incoherency. In the present cir- 
cumstances, half measures must always be destructive, and it is 
better to strike strongly and firmly, than justly. To invade Bava- 
ria, without disarming the Bavarian army, and to enter Suabia, and 
yet acknowledge the neutrality of Switzerland, are such political 
and military errors as require long successes to repair ; but which 
such an enemy as Buonaparte always takes care not to leave unpu- 
nished. 

The long inactivity of the army under the Archduke Charles 
has as much surprised us as the defeat of the army under General 
Mack ; but, from what I know of the former, I am persuaded that 
he would long since have pushed forward, had not his movements 
been unfortunately combined with those of the latter. The House 
of Lorraine never produced a more valiant warrior, nor Austria a 
more liberal or better instructed statesman, than this Prince. Heir 
of the talents of his ancestors, he has commanded with glory 
against France during the revolutionary war; and although he 
sometimes experienced defeats, he has rendered invaluable ser- 
vices to the chief of his House, by his courage, by his activity, by 
his constancy, and by that salutary firmness, which in calling the 
generals and superior officers to their duty, has often re-auimated 
the confidence and the ardour of the soldier. 

The Archduke Charles began in 1793, his military career 
under Prince Cobom^g, the commander in chief of the Austrian 
armies in Brabant, where he commanded the advanced guard, and 
•distinguished himself by a valour sometimes bordering on temeri- 
ty, but which by degrees acquired him that esteem and populari- 
ty among the troops, often very advantageous to him afterwards. 
He was in 1794 appointed governor and captain-general of the 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 339 

Low Countries, and a field-marshal lieutenant of the army of the 
German Empire. In April 1796, he took the command in chief 
of the armies of Austria, and of the Empire, and in the following 
June engaged in several combats with General Moreau, in which 
he was repulsed, but in a manner that did equal honour to the vic- 
tor and to the vanquished. 

The Austrian army on the Lower Rhine, under General 
Wartensleben, having, about this time, been nearly dispersed by 
General Jourdan, the Archduke left some divisions of his forces, 
under General Latour, to impede the progress of Moreau, and 
went with the remainder into Franconia, where he defeated Jour- 
dan, near Amburg and Wurtzburgh, routed his army entirely, and 
forced him to I'epass the Rhine in the greatest confusion, and with 
immense loss. The retreat of Moreau was the consequence of the 
victories of this Prince. After the capture of Kehl, in January 
1797, he assumed the command of the army of Italy, where he in 
vain employed all his efforts to put a stop to the victorious progress 
of Buonaparte, with whom at last he signed the pi-eliminaries of 
peace at Leoben. In the spring of 1799, he again defeated Jourdan 
in Suabia, as he had done two years before in Franconia : but in 
Switzerland he met with an abler adversary in General Massena ; 
still lam inclined to think that he displayed there more real talents 
than any where else ; and that this part of his campaign of 1799 
was the most interesting, in a military point of view. 

The most implacable enemies of the politics of the House of 
Austria render justice to the plans, to the frankness, to the mora- 
lity of Archduke Charles ; and what is remarkable, of all the chiefs 
who have commanded against revolutionary France, he alone has 
seized the true manner of combating enthusiasts or slaves ; at least 
his proclamations are the only ones composed with adroitness, and 
are what they ought to be ; because in them an appeal is made to 
the public opinion, in a time when opinion almost constitutes half 
the strength of armies. 

The present opposer of this Prince in Italy is one of our best 
as well as most fortunate Generals. A Sardinian subject, and a de- 
serter from the Sardmian troops, he assisted in 1792 our com- 
mander General Anselm, in the conquest of the country of Nice, 
rather as a spy than as a soldier. His knowledge of the Maritime 
Alps obtained in 1793 a place on our staff, where, from the ser- 



340 SECRET HISTORY OF THfi 

vices he rendered, the rank of a general of brigade was soon con- 
ferred on him. In 1 796, he was promoted to serve as a general of 
division under Buonaparte in Italy, where he distinguished him- 
self so much, that, when in 1798, General Bertheir was ordei'ed 
to accompany the army of the East to Egypt, he succeeded him as 
commander in chief of our troops, in the temporary Roman Re- 
public. But his merciless pillage, and perhaps the idea of his be- 
ing a foreigner, bi^ought on a mutiny, and the Directory was obliged 
to I'ecal him. It was his campaign in Switzerland of 1799, and his 
defence of Genoa in 1 800, that principally ranked him high as a 
military chief. After the battle of Marengo, he received the com- 
mand of the army of Italy, but his extortions produced a revolt 
among the inhabitants ; and he lived for some time in retreat and 
disgrace, after a violent quarrel with Buonaparte, during which 
many severe truths were said and heard on both sides. 

After the peace of Luneville, he seemed inclined to join Mo- 
reau, and other discontented generals ; but observing, no doubt, 
their want of views and union, he retired to an estate he has bought 
near Paris : where Buonaparte visited him, after the rupture with 
your country, and made him, we may conclude, such offers as 
tempted him to leave his retreat. Last year he was nominated one 
of our Emperor's field marshals, and as such he relieved Jourdan 
of the command in the kingdom of Italy. He has purchased ivith 
a part of his spoil, for fifteen millions of livres, 625,000/. property, 
in France and Italy ; and is considered worth double that sum in 
jewels, money, and other valuables. 

Massena is called in France, the spoiled child of fortune ; and 
as Buonaparte, like our former Cardinal Mazarin, has more confi- 
dence in fortune than in merit, he is perliaps more indebted to the 
former than-+(5 the latter for his present situation ; his familiarity 
has-Tfiade him disliked at our Imperial court, where he never ad- 
dresses Napolcone and Madame Buonaparte as an Emperor or 
an Empress, without smiling. 

General St. Cyr, our second in command of the army of 
Italy, is also an officer of great talents and distinction. He was, 
in 1791, only a cornet, but, in 1795, he headed, as a general, a 
division of the army of the Rhine. In his report to the Directory, 
during the famous retreat of 1796, Moreau speaks highly of this 
general, and admits that his achievements, in part, saved the re- 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 341 

publicaA army. During 1799, he sei'ved in Italy; and in J800j 
he commanded the centre of the army of the Rhine, and assisted 
in gaining the victory of Hohenlinden. After the peace of Lune- 
ville, he was appointed a counsellor of state of the military section, 
a place he still occupies, notwithstanding his present employment. 
Though under forty years of age, he is rather infirm from the fa- 
tigues he has undergone, and the wounds he has received. 
Although he has never combated as a general in chief, there is no 
doubt but that he would fill such a place with honour to himself, 
and advantage to his country. 

Of the general officers who commanded under Archduke 
Charles, Count de Bellegarde is already known by his exploits 
during the last war. He had distinguished himself already in 
1793, particularly when Valenciennes and Maubeuge were be- 
sieged by the united Austrian and English forces; and, in 1794, 
he commanded the column, at the head of which the Emperor 
marched, when Landrecy was invested. In 1796, he was one of 
the members of the council of the Archduke Charles, when this 
Prince commanded for the first time as a general in chief, on 
which occasion he was promoted to a field-marshal lieutenant. 
He displayed again great talents during the campaign of 1799, 
when he headed a small corps, placed between General Suwar- 
row in Italy, and Archduke Charles in Switzerland ; and in this 
delicate post he contributed equally to the success of both. After 
the peace of Luneville he was appointed a commander in chief 
for the Emperor in the ci-de-vant Venetian States, where the 
troops composing the army under the Archduke Charles, were 
last summer received and inspected by him, before the arrival of 
the Prince. He is considered by military men as greatly superior 
to most of the generals now employed by the Emperor of Ger- 
many. 



342 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 



LETTER LXXVI. 

Paris, October 1805. 



MY LORD, 



" I WOULD give my brother, the Emperor of Germany, 
one further piece of advice. — Let him hasten to make peace. 
This is the crisis when he must recollect, all states must have an 
end. The idea of the afifiroaching extinction of the dynasty of 
Lorraine, must impress him with horror." When Buonaparte 
ordered this paragraph to be inserted in the Moniteur, he disco- 
vered an arriere pense, long suspected by politicians, but never 
before avowed by himself, or by his ministers. " That he has 
determined on the universal change of dynasties, because an 
usurper can never reign with safety or honour, as long as any 
legitimate Prince may disturb his power or reproach him for his 
rank." Elevated with prosperity, or infatuated with vanity and 
pride, he spoke a language which his placemen, courtiers, and 
even his brother Joseph, at first thought premature, if not indis- 
creet. If all lawful sovereigns do not read, in these words, their 
proscription, and the fate which the most powerful usui-per that 
ever desolated mankind has destined for them, it may be ascribed 
to that blindness, with which Providence, in its wrath, sometimes 
strikes those doomed to be grand examples of the vicissitudes of 
human life. 

" Had Talleyrand," said Louis Buonaparte, in his wife's 
drawing-room, " been by my brother's side, he would not have un- 
necessarily alarmed or awakened those whom it should have been 
his policy to keep in a soft slumber, until his blows had laid them 
down to rise no more ; but his so\diiQV-)Ske frankness frequently in- 
jures his political views." This I mysef heard Louis say to Abbe 
Sieyes, though several foreign ambassadors were in the saloon, 
near enough not to miss a word. If it was really meant as a re- 
flection on Napoleone, it was imprudent ; if designed as a defiance 
to other princes, it was unbecoming and impertinent. I am 
inclined to believe it, considering the hidividual to whom it Avas 
addressed, a premeditated declaration, that our Emperor expected 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 343 

an umversal war, was prepared for it, and was certain of its fortu- 
nate issue. 

When this Sieyes is often consulted, and publicly flattered, 
our politicians say, " Woe to the happiness of Sovereigns and to 
the tranquillity of subjects ; the fiend of mankind is busy, and at 
work:" and, in fact, ever since 1789, the infamous ex-abbe has 
figured, either as a plotter or as an actor, in all our dreadful and 
sanguinary revolutionary epochas. The accomplice of La Fayette 
in 1789, of Brissot in 1791, of Marat in 1792, of Robespierre in 
1793, of Tallien in 1794, of Barras in 1795, of Rewbell in 1797, 
and of Buonaparte in 1799 ; he has hitherto planned, served, be- 
trayed, or deserted, all factions. He is one of the few of our grand 
criminals who, after enticing and sacrificing his associates, has 
been fortunate enough to survive them. Buonaparte has heaped 
upon him presents, places, and pensions ; national property, sena- 
tories, knighthoods, and palaces ; but he is nevertheless not 
supposed one of our Emperor's most dutiful subjects, because 
many of the late changes have differed from his metaphysical 
schemes of innovation, of regeneration, and of overthrow. He 
has too high an opinion of his own deserts, not to consider it be- 
neath his philosophical dignity to be a contented subject of a 
fellow -subject, elevated into supremacy by his labours and 
dangers. His modesty has, for these sixteen years past, ascribed 
to his talents all the glory and prosperity of France, and all her 
misery and misfortunes to the disregard of his counsels, and to 
the neglect of his advice. Buonaparte knows it ; and that he is 
one of those crafty, sly, and dark conspirators, more dangerous 
than the bold assassin, who, by sophistry, art, and perseverance, 
insinuate into the minds of the unwary and darijiig, the ideas of 
their plots in such an insidious manner, that they take them and 
foster them as the production of their own genius : he is, there- 
fore watched by our Imperial spies, and never consulted but when 
any great blow is intended to be struck, or some enormous atro- 
cities perpetrated. A month before the seizure of the Duke of 
Enghien, and the murder of Pichegru, he was every day shut up 
for some hours with Napoleone Buonaparte at St. Cloud, or in the 
Thuileries, where he has hardly been seen since, except after 
our Emperor's return from his coronation as a King of Italy. 



344 SECRET HISTORY OE THE 

Sieyes never was a republican ; and it was cowardice aionc 
that made him vote for the death of his King and benefactor : 
although he is very fond of his own metaphysical notions, he 
always has preferred the preservadon of his life to the profession 
er adherence to his systems. He will not think the Revolution 
complete, or the constitution of his country a good one, until 
some Napoleone, or some Louis writes himself an Emperor or 
King of Prance by the grace of Sieyes ; he would expose the lives 
\ of thousands, to obtain such a compliment to his hateful vanity 
and excessive pride ; but he would not take a step that endangered 
his personal safety, though it might eventually lead him to the 
possession of a crown. 

From the bounty of his King, Sieyes had, before the Revolu- 
tion, an income of fifteen thousand livres, 625/. per annum ; his 
places, pensions, and landed estates produce now yearly five 
hundred thousand livres, 20,000/. not including the interest of his 
money in the French and foreign funds. Two years ago he was 
exiled for some time, to an estate of liis in Tourrain, and Buona- 
parte even deliberated about transporting him to Cayenne ; when 
Talleyrand observed, " that such a condemnation would endanger 
that colony of France, as he would certainly organize there a focus 
of revolutions, which might also involve Surinam and the Brazils, 
the colonies of our allies, in one common ruin. In the present 
circumstances," added the minister, " if Sieyes is to be transported 
I wish we could land him in England, Scotland or Ireland, oi' 
even in Russia.'' 

I have just heard from a general officer, the following anec- 
dote, which he read to me from a letter of another general, dated 
Ulm, the 25th instant, and if true, it explains in part, Buonaparte's 
apparent indiscretion in the threat thrown out against all ancient 
dynasties. 

Among his confidential generals, (and hitherto the most ir- 
reproachable of all our military commanders), Marmont is pai'ticu- 
larly distinguished. Before Napoleone left this capital to head 
his armies in Germany, he is stated to have sent dispatches to all 
those traitors dispersed in different countries, whom he has se- 
lected to commence the new dynasties, under the /trotcctioti of the 
Buonapaite dynasty. They were no doubt advised of f/iis bemg^ 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 345 

the crisis, when they had to begin their machinations against 
thrones. A courier from Talleyrand at Strasburgh to Buonaparte 
at Ulm was ordered to pass by the corps under the command of 
Marmont, to whom, in case the Emperor had advanced too far 
into Germany, he was to deliver his papers. This courier was 
surprised, and interrupted by some Austrian light troops ; and as 
it was only some few hours after being informed of this capture, 
that Buonaparte expressed himself frankly, as related above, it 
was supposed by his army, that the Austrian government had 
already in its power, dispatches, which made our schemes of 
imfirovemcnt at Paris no longer any secrets at Vienna. The 
writer of this letter added that General Marmont was highly dis- 
tressed on account of this accident, which might retard the pi'os- 
pect of restoring Europe its long lost peace and tranquillity. 

This officer made his first campaign under Pichegru in 1794, 
and was, in 1796, appointed by Buonaparte one of his aides-de- 
camp. His education has been entirely military, and in the 
practice the war afforded him, he soon evinced how well he re- 
membered the lessons of theory. In the year 1796, at the battle 
of St. George, before Mantua, he charged, at the head of the 
eighth battalion of grenadiers, and contributed much to its fortu- 
nate issue. In October the same year, Buonaparte, as a mark of 
his satisfaction, sent him to present to the Directory the nume- 
rous colours which the army of Italy had conquered ; from whom 
he received in return a pair of pistols, with a fraternal hug from 
Carnot. On his return to Italy, he was for the first time employed 
by his chief in a political capacity. A Republic, and nothing but 
a Republic, being then the order of the day, some Italian patriots 
were convoked at Reggio, to arrange a plan for a Cisalpine 
Republic, and for the incorporation with it of Modena, Bologna, 
and other Neutral states; Marmont was nominated a French 
republican plenipotentiary, and assisted as such, in the organiza- 
tion of a commonwealth, which since has been by turns a province 
of Austria, or a tributary state of France. 

Marmont, though combating for a bad cause, is an honest 
man ; his hands are neither soiled with plunder, nor stained with 
blood. Buonaparte, among his other good qualities, wishes to see 
every one about him rich; and those who have been too delicate 

Y Y 



346 SECRET HISTORY OF THE 

to accumulate wealth by pillage he generally pro^nides for, by 
putthig mto requisition some great heiress. After the peace of 
Campo Formio, Buonaparte arrived at Paris, where he demanded 
in marriage for his aide-de-camp Marmont, Mademoiselle Perre- 
geaux, the sole child of the first banker in France ; a well edu- 
cated and accomplished young lady, who would be much more 
agreeable, did not her continual smiles and laughing indicate a 
degree of self-satisfaction and complacency which may be felt, 
but ought never to be published. 

The banker Perregeaux is one of those fortunate beings, who, 
by drudgery and assiduity, has succeeded in some few years to 
make an ample fortune. A Swiss by birth, like Necker, he also 
like him, after gratifying the passion of avidity, shewed an ambi- 
tion to shine in other places than in the counting-house and upon 
the exchange. Under La Fayette, in 1790, he was the chief of a 
battalion of the Parisian national guards ; under Robespierre, a 
commissioner for purchasing provisions ; and under Buonaparte, 
he is become a senator, and a commander of the Legion of 
Honour. I am told that he has made all his money by his connex- 
ions with your conntry ; but I knoiv that the favourite of Napoleone 
can never be the friend of Great Britain. He is a widower ; but 
Mademoiselle Mars, of the Emperor's theatre, consoles him for 
the loss of his wife. 

General Marmont accompanied Buonaparte to Egypt, and 
distinguished himself at the capture of Malta ; and when, in the 
following year, the siege of St. Jean d'Acre was undertaken, he 
was ordered to extend the fortifications of Alexandria ; and if, in 
1801, they retarded your progress, it was owing to his abilities ; 
being an officer of engineers as well as of the artillery. He re- 
turned with Buonaparte to Europe, and was, after his usurpation, 
made a counsellor of state. At the battle of Marengo he com- 
manded the artillery, and signed afterwards with the Austrian 
General Count Hohenzollern the ai-mistice of Treviso, which 
preceded shortly the peace of Luneville. Nothing has abated Buo- 
naparte's attachment to this officer, Avhom he appointed a com- 
mander in chief in Holland, when a change of government was 
intended there ; and whom he Avill entrust every where else, 
where sovereignty is to be abolished, or thrones and dynasties 
subverted. 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 347 

LETTER LXXVIL 

Paris, October 1805. 

MY LORD, 

MANY wise people are of opinion, that the Revohition of 
another great empire is necessary to combat or oppose the great 
impvile occasioned by the Revolution of France, before Europe 
can recover its long lost order and repose. Had the subjects of 
Austiia been as disaffected as they are loyal, the world might have 
witnessed such a terrible event, and been enabled to judge whe- 
ther the hypothesis was the prodi^ption of an ingenious schemer, 
or of a profound statesman. Our armies, luider Buonaparte, have 
never before penetrated into the heart of a country where subver- 
sion was not prepared, and where subversion did not follow. 

How relatively insignificant in the eyes of Providence, must, 
be the independence of states, and the liberties of nations, when 
such a relatively insignificant personage as General Mack can 
shake them ? Have then the Austrian heroes, a Prince Eugene, 
a Laudon, a Lasci, a Beaulieu, a Haddick, a Bender, a Clairfayt, 
and numerous other valiant and great warriors, left no posterity 
behind them ? Or has the presumption of General Mack impos- 
ed upon the judgment of the counsellors of his Prince ? This 
latter must have been the case ; how otherwise could the welfare 
of their Sovereign have been entrusted to a military quack, whose 
want of energy, and bad dispositions, had in 1799 delivered up the 
capital of another Sovereign to his enemies. How many reputa- 
tions are gained by an impudent assurance, and lost when the man 
of talents is called upon to act, and the fool presents himself. 

Baron de Mack served as an aid-de-camp under Field Mar- 
shal Laudon, durmg the last war between Austria and Turkey, 
and displayed some intrepidity, particularly before Lissa. The 
Austrian army was encamped eight leagues from that place, and 
the commander in chief hesitated to attack it, believing it to be 
defended by thirty thousand men. To decide him upon making 
this attack, Baron de Mack left him at nine o'clock at night, crossed 



348 SECRET HISTORY OF THE. 

the Danube, accompanied only by a single houlan, and penetrated 
into the suburb of Lissa ; where he made prisoner a Turkish offi- 
cer, whom, on the next morning at seven o'clock, he presented to 
his general, and from whom it was learnt, that the garrison con- 
tained only six thousand men. This personal temerity, and the 
applause of Field Marshal Laudon, procured him then a kind of 
reputation which he has not since been able to support. Some 
theoretical knowledge of the art of war, and a great facility of con- 
versing on military topics, made even the Emperor Joseph con- 
ceive a high opinion of this officer ; but it has long been proved, 
and experience confirms it every day, that the difference is im- 
mense between the speculator and the operator ; and that the ge- 
nerals of cabinets are often indifferent captains, when in the camp 
or in the field. 

Preceded by a certain celebrity, Baron de Mack served in 
1793 under the Prince of Cobourg, as an adjutant-general, and was 
called to assist at the Congress at Antwerp, where the operations 
of the campaign were regulated. Every where he displayed ac- 
tivity and bravery ; was wounded twice in the month of May ; 
but he left the army vathout having performed any thing that 
evinced the talents which fame had bestowed on him . In Feb- 
ruary 1794 the Emperor sent him to London, to arrange, in con- 
cert with your government, the plans of the campaign then on the 
eve of being opened ; and when he returned to the Low Countries, 
he was advanced to a quartermaster-general of the army of Flan- 
ders, and terminated also this unfortunate campaign, without ha- 
ving done any thing to justify the reputation he had before acquir- 
ed or usurped. His Sovereign continued nevertheless to employ 
him in different armies ; and in January 1797 he was appointed a 
field-marshal lieutenant, and a quartermaster-general of the army 
of the Rhine. In February, he conducted fifteen thousand of 
the troops of this army to reinforce the army of Italy ; but when 
Buonaparte in April penetrated into Styria and Carinthia, he was 
ordered to Vienna, as a second in command of the levy en ?nassc. 
Real military characters had already formed their opinion of 
this officer, and seen a presumptuous charlatan, where others had 
admired an able warrior. His own conduct soon convinced them 
that they neither had been rash nor mistaken. The King of 



COURT OF ST. CLOUD. 349 

Naples demanding in 1798, from his son-in-law, the Emperor of 
Germany, a general to organize and head his troops, Baron de 
Mack was presented to him. After war had been declared against 
France, he obtained some success in partial engagements, but was 
defeated in a general battle, by an enemy inferior in number. In 
the kingdom of Naples, as well as in the empire of Germany, the 
fury of negotiation seized him, when he should have fought, and 
when he should have remembered that no compacts can ever be 
entered into with political and military earthquakes, more than 
with physical ones. This imprudence, particularly as he was a 
foreigner, excited suspicion among his troops ; whom, instead of 
leading to battle, he deserted, under the pretence that his life was 
in danger, and surrendered himself and his staff to our comman- 
der, Championet. 

A general who is too fond of his life, ought never to enter a 
camp, much less to command armies ; and a military chief, who 
does not consider the happiness and honour of the state as his first 
passion and his first duty, and prefers existence to glory, deserves 
to be shot as a traitor, or drummed out of the army as a dastardly 
coward. Without mentioning the numerous military faults com- 
mitted by General de Mack, during this campaign, it is impossible 
to deny, that with respect to his own troops, he conducted himself 
in the most pusillanimous manner. It has often been repeated, 
that martial valour does not always combine with it that courage, 
and that necessary presence of mind, which knows how to direct 
or repress multitudes, how to command obedience and obtain po- 
pularity ; but when a man is entrusted with the safety of an Em- 
pii'e, and assumes such a brilliant situation, he must be weak- 
minded and despicable indeed, if he does not shew himself worthy 
t)f it, by endeavouring to succeed, or perish in the attempt. The 
French emigrant G^peral Dumas, evinced what might have been 
done, even with the dispirited Neapolitan troops, whom he neitherr 
deserted, nor with whom he offered to capitulate, 

Bai'on de Mack is in a very infirm state of health, and is 
often under the necessity of being carried on a litter ; and his 
bodily complaints have certainly not increased the -vigour of his 
mind. His love of life seems to augment in proportion as its real 
value diminishes. As to the report here of his having betrayed 



350 



SECRET HISTORY OF isTc. 



his trust in exchanging honour for gold, I believe it totally . un- 
founded. Our intriguers may have deluded his understanding, 
but our traitors would never have been able to seduce or shake his 
fidelity. His head is weak, but his heart is honest. Unfortunately 
it is too true, that in turbulent times irresolution and weakness in 
a commander, or a minister, operate the same, and are as dan- 
gerous as treason. 



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